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XENOPHON   ON    HORSEMANSHIP. 


THE    ART 

OF 

HORSEMANSHIP. 

BY 

XENOPHON. 


TRANSLATED,  WITH   CHAPTERS   ON    THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE 
AND    WITH    NOTES, 

BY 

MORRIS    H.   MORGAN,   Ph.D. 

Assistant  Professor  in  Harvard  University. 


Proficies  nihil  hoc,  caedas  licet  usque,  flagello. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND    COMPANY. 

1893. 


Copyright,  1893, 
By  Morris  H.  Morgan. 


Uniijcrsitg  Pass: 

John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE. 


Among  technical  treatises,  that  of  Xeno- 
phon  on  Horsemanship  is  almost  unique  in 
one  particular.  Even  after  more  than  twenty- 
three  centuries  it  is  still,  in  the  main,  a 
sound  and  excellent  guide  for  so  much  of  the 
field  as  it  covers.  This  fact,  together  with 
the  simple  and  delightful  manner  in  which 
the  subject  is  treated,  has  led  me  to  think 
that  some  who  are  not  able  or  do  not  care 
to  approach  the  book  in  the  original  Greek, 
might  like  to  read  a  translation  of  the  earli- 
est known  work  on  the  horse  and  how  to 
ride  him.  To  be  sure,  there  have  already 
been  versions  in  English ;  but  these  seem  to 
me,  and  have  seemed  to  others,  unsatisfactory. 

My  translation  is  made  from  the  Greek 
text  of  Dindorf's  Oxford  edition.  Two 
well-known  special  editions  of  the  treatise  I 


VI  PREFACE. 

have  found  very  useful.  These  are  by 
Courier,  with  notes  and  a  translation  into 
French,  first  published  in  Paris  in  1813,  and 
by  Jacobs,  with  notes  and  a  German  version, 
Gotha,  1825.  Hermann's  essay,  **De  verbis 
quibus  Graeci  incessum  equorum  indicant," 
is  indispensable  for  the  study  of  certain  parts 
of  the  treatise.  I  have  also  consulted  the 
German  translation  of  Ginzrot,  with  brief 
notes,  in  the  second  volume  of  his  large 
work  called  "  Die  Wagen  und  Fuhrwerke 
der  Griechen  und  Romer,"  Munich,  1817. 
Ginzrot's  book  must  be  used  with  caution ; 
the  illustrations  are  often  fanciful,  and  the 
statements  need  verification ;  but  his  transla- 
tion of  Xenophon  is  sometimes  helpful.  In 
English  I  have  seen  three  translations,  — 
Berenger's  (in  his  *'  History  and  Art  of  Horse- 
manship," London,  1771,  a  somewhat  rare 
book,  for  the  loan  of  which  I  am  obliged  to 
the  Librarian  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum)  ;  an 
anonymous  translation  reprinted  with  the 
minor  works  of  Xenophon  in  Philadelphia  in 
1845;  and  Watson's,  in  Bohn's  Classical 
Library.  The  first  is  by  far  the  best,  but  I 
have  not  found  either  of  the  three  of  much 


PREFACE.  VII 

assistance.     There    has   been    no    edition    of 
the  Greek  text  with  English  notes. 

The  illustrations  in  this  book  are  all 
selected  from  the  antique,  and  are  repro- 
duced from  the  best  sources  at  my  command. 
These  sources,  together  with  a  brief  descrip- 
tion of  each  picture,  are  given  on  page  158  ff. 
I  might  have  illustrated  almost  every  subject 
in  the  treatise  by  means  of  the  Parthenon 
frieze ;  but  I  choose  rather  to  omit  all  but  a 
few  of  these  well-known  works,  and  to  present 
others  which  are  less  generally  known  to  the 
readers  for  whom  my  book  is  primarily  in- 
tended. For  it  will  be  easy  to  see  that  I 
have  not  written  for  philologians.  The  brief 
essay  on  the  Greek  Riding-horse  makes  no 
pretence  to  completeness,  and  little  to  origi- 
nality. In  it,  and  in  the  notes  which  follow, 
my  chief  intention  has  been  to  offer  only 
what  I  thought  would  be  necessary  explana- 
tion or  interesting  information  to  those  who 
do  not  profess  to  be  classical  scholars.  Yet 
perhaps  even  such  scholars  may  find  here 
and  there,  especially  in  the  notes,  a  few 
points  which  may  be  new,  and,  I  hope,  not 
unacceptable  to  them.     And  I  sincerely  wish 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

that  this  little  book  might  lead  some  one  to  a 
more  thorough  study  of  the  subjects  of  riding 
and  driving  in  antiquity.  They  offer  a  fertile 
and  interesting  field  for  special  investigation. 
Besides  the  German  works  already  men- 
tioned, and  the  ordinary  classical  handbooks, 
the  best  books  in  which  to  find  information 
about  the  Greek  horse  and  horsemanship  are 
Schlieben's  ''  Die  Pferde  des  Altertums,"  1867, 
Martin's  "  Les  Cavaliers  Atheniens,"  1886, 
and  Daremberg  and  Saglio's  "  Dictionnaire 
des  Antiquites,"  under  the  words  equiteSy 
eqimSy  etc.  I  have  not  seen  Lehndorf's 
**  Hippodromos,"  1876,  nor  Pietrement's  *'Les 
chevaux  dans  les  temps  historiques  et  pre- 
historiques,"  1883.  One  of  the  most  charm- 
ing of  the  works  of  Cherbuliez  is  his  '*  Cheval 
de  Phidias,"  1864,  in  which  the  subject  is 
considered  from  purely  artistic  and  aesthetic 
points  of  view.  Of  course  there  is  much 
information  scattered  through  periodical  liter- 
ature; but,  in  spite  of  all,  the  book  of  the 
ancient  horse  is  yet  to  be  written. 

M.  H.  M. 
May^  1893. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Xenophon  on  Horsemanship 13 

The  Greek  Riding-Horse   .......  69 

Points  of  the  Horse ,    .  107 

Notes    .0 .,    ...  119 

On  the  Illustrations     .,..,...  159 

Index 185 


XENOPHON   ON    HORSEMANSHIP. 


CHAPTER   I. 


TT  has  been  my  fortune  to  spend  a  great 
deal  of  time  in  riding,  and  so  I  think 
myself  versed  in  the  horseman's  art.  This 
makes  me  willing  to  set  forth  to  the  younger 
of  my  friends  what  I  believe  would  be  the 
best  way  for  them  to  deal  with  horses.  It 
is  true  that  a  book  on  horsemanship  has 
already  been  written  by  Simon : '  I  mean 
the  man  who  dedicated  the  bronze  horse  at  the 
Eleusinion"  in  Athens  with  his  own  exploits 
I  The  numerals  refer  to  the  Notes,  p.  119  ff. 


14  XENOPHON   ON    HORSEMANSHIP. 

in  relief  on  the  pedestal.  Still,  I  shall  not 
strike  out  of  my  work  all  the  points  in  which 
I  chance  to  agree  with  him,  but  shall  take 
much  greater  pleasure  in  passing  them  on 
to  my  friends,  believing  that  I  speak  with 
the  more  authority  because  a  famous  horse- 
man, such  as  he,  has  thought  as  I  do.  And 
then,  again,  I  shall  try  to  make  clear  what- 
ever he  has  omitted. 

To  begin  with,  I  shall  describe  how  a 
man,  in  buying  a  horse,  would  be  least 
likely  to  be  cheated.  In  the  case  of  an 
unbroken  colt,  of  course  his  frame  is  what 
you  must  test;  as  for  spirit,  no  very  sure 
signs  of  that  are  offered  by  an  animal  that 
has  never  yet  been  mounted.  And  in  his 
frame,  the  first  things  which  I  say  you 
ought  to  look  at  are  his  feet.^  Just  as  a 
house  would  be  good  for  nothing  if  it  were 
very  handsome  above  but  lacked  the  proper 
foundations,  so  too  a  war-horse,  even  if  all  his 
other  points  were  fine,  would  yet  be  good  for 
nothing  if  he  had  bad  feet;  for  he  could  not 
use  a  single  one  of  his  fine  points. 

The  feet  should  first  be  tested  by  exam- 
ining the  horn ;  thick  horn  '^  is  a  much  better 


CHAPTER   I.  15 

mark  of  good  feet  than  thin.  Again,  one 
should  not  fail  to  note  whether  the  hoofs  at 
toe  and  heel  come  up  high  or  lie  low.  High 
ones  keep  what  is  called  the  frog  5  well  off 
the  ground,  while  horses  with  low  hoofs  walk 
with  the  hardest  and  softest  part  of  the  foot 
at  once,  like  knock-kneed  men.  Simon  says 
that  their  sound  is  a  proof  of  good  feet,  and 
he  is  right ;  for  a  hollow  hoof  resounds  like  a 
cymbal  as  it  strikes  the  ground. 

As  we  have  begun  here,  let  us  now  proceed 
to  the  rest  of  the  body.  The  bones  above 
the  hoofs  and  belov/  the  fetlocks  should  not 
be  very  straight  up  and  down,  like  the  goat's ; 
for  if  they  have  no  spring,  they  jar  the  rider, 
and  such  legs  are  apt  to  get  inflamed.  These 
bones  should  not  come  down  very  low,  either, 
else  the  horse  might  get  his  fetlocks  stripped 
of  hair  ^  and  torn  in  riding  over  heavy  ground 
or  over  stones.  The  shank  bones  ought  to 
be  stout,  for  they  are  the  supporters  of  the 
body;  but  they  should  not  be  thickly  coated 
with  flesh  or  veins  :  if  they  are,  in  riding  over 
hard  ground  the  veins  would  fill  with  blood 
and  become  varicose,  the  legs  would  swell, 
and  the  flesh  recede.     With  this  slackening 


\6  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

of  the  flesh,  the  back  sinew  ^  often  gives  way, 
and  makes  the  horse  lame.  As  for  the  knees, 
if  they  are  supple  in  bending  when  the  colt 
walks,  you  may  infer  that  his  limbs  will  be 
supple  in  riding;  for  as  time  goes  on,  all  colts 
get  more  and  more  supple  at  the  knees. 
Supple  knees  are  highly  esteemed ;  and  justly, 
because  they  make  the  horse  easier  and  less 
likely  to  stumble  than  stiff  ones.  Forearms  ^ 
stout  below  the  shoulders  look  stronger  and 
comelier,  as  they  do  in  man. 

The  broader  the  chest  so  much  the  hand- 
somer and  the  stronger  is  it,  and  the  more 
naturally  adapted  to  carry  the  legs  well  apart 
and  without  interference.  The  neck  should 
not  be  thrown  out  from  the  chest  like  a 
boar's,  but,  like  a  cock's,  should  rise  straight 
up  to  the  poll  and  be  slim  at  the  bend, 
while  the  head,  though  bony,  should  have 
but  a  small  jaw.^  The  neck  would  then 
protect  the  rider,  and  the  eye  see  what  lies 
before  the  feet.  A  horse  thus  shaped  could 
do  the  least  harm,  even  if  he  were  very  high- 
spirited  ;  for  it  is  not  by  arching  the  neck 
and  head,  but  by  stretching  them  out,  that 
horses   try  their  powers    of  violence.      You 


CHAPTER   I.  17 

should  note  also  whether  his  jaws  are  fine 
or  hard,  whether  they  are  alike  or  different.'^ 
Horses  whose  jaws  are  unlike  are  generally 
hard-mouthed.  A  prominent  eye  rather  than 
a  sunken  one  is  a  sure  sign  that  the  horse  is 
wide  awake ;  and  such  a  one  can  see  farther 
too.  Wide  nostrils "  mean  freer  breathinp- 
than  close  ones,  and  at  the  same  time  they 
make  the  horse  look  fiercer ;  for  whenever 
a  horse  is  provoked  at  another  or  gets  excited 
during  exercise,  he  dilates  his  nostrils  very 
widely. 

A  rather  large  poll  '^  and  ears  somewhat 
small  give  the  head  more  of  the  look  which 
a  horse  should  have.  High  withers  make 
the  rider's  seat  surer,  and  his  grip  on  the 
shoulders  stronger.  A  double  back  '^  is 
easier  to  sit  upon,  and  better  looking  than 
a  single  one.  A  deep  side,  rather  rounded 
at  the  belly,  generally  makes  the  horse  at 
once  easier  to  sit  upon,  stronger,  and  a  better 
feeder.  The  broader  and  the  shorter  the 
loins,  with  so  much  the  greater  ease  does 
the  horse  raise  his  forehand  and  bring  up  the 
hind-quarters  to  follow;  then,  too,  the  belly 
looks  smallest,  which,  when  it  is  large,  is  not 


1 8  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

only  disfiguring,  but  makes  the  horse  weaker 
and  more  unwieldy.  The  quarters  should  be 
broad  and  full  in  proportion  to  the  sides  and 
chest;  and  all  these  parts,  if  firm,  would  be 
lighter  for  running,  and  make  your  horse  a 
great  deal  faster.  If  he  has  his  buttocks  well 
apart  under  the  tail  with  the  line  between 
them  broad,  he  will  be  sure  to  spread  well 
behind ;  in  so  doing  he  will  have  a  stronger 
and  a  prouder  look,  both  when  gathering 
himself  in  '^  and  in  riding,  and  all  his  points 
will  be  improved.  You  may  take  the  case 
of  men  to  prove  this ;  whenever  they  wish  to 
lift  anything  from  the  ground,  they  do  it  with 
their  legs  apart  rather  than  close  together. 
The  horse  should  certainly  not  have  large 
stones ;  but  this  point  cannot  be  determined 
in  the  colt.  As  for  the  hocks  below,  or  the 
shanks  and  the  fetlocks  and  hoofs,  I  say 
about  them  here  just  what  I  did  in  the  case 
of  the  forefeet. 

I  will  set  down,  too,  how  you  are  least  likely 
to  miss  the  mark  in  the  matter  of  size.  That 
colt  always  turns  out  the  largest  whose 
shanks  are  longest  at  the  time  of  foaling.  For 
the  shanks  do  not  grow  '5  very  much  in  any 


CHAPTER   I.  19 

quadrupeds  as  time  goes  on,  but  the  rest  of 
the  frame  grows  so  as  to  correspond  to  the 
shanks.  It  seems  to  me  that,  by  testing  a 
colt's  shape  in  the  manner  described,  people 
would  get,  as  a  general  rule,  an  animal  with 
sound  feet,  strong,  good-conditioned,  grace- 
ful, and  large.  Even  though  some  alter  as 
they  grow,  we  should  still  apply  these  tests 
with  confidence,  since  there  are  a  great  many 
more  ugly  colts  that  turn  out  handsome  than 
handsome  ones  that  turn  out  ugly. 


CHAPTER    II. 

T  T  does  not  seem  necessary  for  me  to 
J-  describe  the  method  of  breaking  a  colt, 
because  those  who  are  enlisted  in  the  cavalry  '^ 
in  our  states  are  persons  of  very  considerable 
means,  and  take  no  small  part  in  the  govern- 
ment. It  is  also  a  great  deal  better  than 
being  a  horse-breaker  for  a  young  man  to  see 
that  his  own  condition  and  that  of  his  horse 
is  good,  or  if  he  knows  this  already,  to  keep 
up  his  practice  in  riding;  while  an  old  man 
had  better  attend  to  his  family  and  friends,  to 
public  business  and  military  matters,  than 
be    spending    his    time    in    horse-breaking. 


CHAPTER   II.  21 

The  man,  then,  that  feels  as  I  do  about  horse- 
breaking  will,  of  course,  put  out  his  colt.  He 
should  not  put  him  out,  however,  without 
having  a  written  contract  made,  stating  what 
the  horse  is  to  be  taught  before  he  is  returned, 
just  as  he  does  when  he  puts  his  son  out  to 
learn  a  trade.  This  will  serve  as  a  reminder 
to  the  horse-breaker  of  what  he  must  attend 
to,  if  he  is  to  get  his  fee. 

See  to  it  that  the  colt  be  kind,  used  to  the 
hand,  and  fond  of  men  when  he  is  put  out  to 
the  horse-breaker.  He  is  generally  made  so 
at  home  and  by  the  groom,  if  the  man  knows 
how  to  manage  so  that  solitude  means  to  the 
colt  hunger  and  thirst  and  teasing  horseflies, 
while  food,  drink,  and  relief  from  pain  come 
from  man.  For  if  this  be  done,  colts  must 
not  only  love  men,  but  even  long  for  them. 
Then,  too,  the  horse  should  be  stroked  in  the 
places  which  he  most  likes  to  have  handled ; 
that  is,  where  the  hair  is  thickest,  and  where 
he  is  least  able  to  help  himself  if  anything 
hurts  him.  The  groom  should  also  be 
directed  to  lead  him  through  crowds,  and  to 
make  him  familiar  with  all  sorts  of  sights  and 
all    sorts    of  noises.     Whenever  the    colt    is 


22 


XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 


frightened  at  any  of  them,  he  should  be 
taught,  not  by  irritating  but  by  soothing 
him,  that  there  is  nothing  to  fear.  It  seems 
to  me  that  this  is  enough  to  tell  the  amateur 
to  do  in  the  matter  of  horse-breaking. 


CHAPTER   III. 


I  SHALL  now  set  down  some  memoranda 
to  be  observed  in  buying  a  horse 
already  broken  to  riding,  if  you  are  not  to  be 
cheated  in  the  purchase.  First,  then,  the 
question  of  age  should  not  pass  unnoticed; 
for  if  he  no  longer  has  the  markers, '^  the 
prospect  is  not  a  glad  one,  and  he  is  not  to 
be  disposed  of  so  easily.  His  youth  once 
made  sure  of,  the  way  in  which  he  lets  you 
put  the  bit  into  his  mouth,  and  the  head-piece 
about  his  ears,  should  not  escape  you.  This 
would  be  least  likely  to  pass  unnoticed  if  the 
bridle  were  put  on  and  taken  off  in  the  sight 


24  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

of  the  purchaser.  Next  we  ought  to  observe 
how  he  receives  the  rider  upon  his  back ;  a 
good  many  horses  hardly  let  come  near  them 
things  who^e  very  approach  is  a  sign  that 
there  is  work  to  be  done.  This,  too,  must 
be  observed,  —  whether,  when  mounted,  he 
is  willing  to  leave  other  horses,  or  whether, 
when  ridden  near  horses  that  are  standing 
still,  he  runs  away  towards  them.  Some 
horses,  also,  from  bad  training  take  flight 
towards  home  from  the  riding-grounds.  The 
exercise  called  the  Volte  '^  shows  up  a  hard 
mouth,  and  even  more  the  practice  of  chang- 
ing the  direction.  Many  horses  do  not  try 
to  run  away  unless  the  mouth  is  hard  on  the 
same  side  with  the  road  for  a  bolt  towards 
home. '9  Then  you  must  know  whether, 
when  let  out  at  full  speed,  he  will  come 
to  the  poise  and  be  willing  to  turn  round. 
It  is  not  a  bad  thing  to  try  whether  he  is 
just  as  ready  to  mind  when  roused  by  a  blow 
as  he  was  before.  A  disobedient  servant  is 
of  course  a  useless  thing,  and  so  is  a  dis- 
obedient army;  a  disobedient  horse  is  not 
only  useless,  but  he  often  plays  the  part  of  a 
very  traitor. 


CHAPTER   III.  25 

As  I  assume  that  the  horse  to  be  bought  is 
meant  for  war,  trial  should  be  made  of  all  the 
qualities  that  war  itself  puts  to  the  test.  These 
are  jumping  ditches,  going  over  walls,  breast- 
ing banks,  and  leaping  down  from  them ;  you 
must  try  him  riding  up  hill  and  down  dale 
and  along  the  slope.  All  these  tests  prove 
whether  his  spirit  is  strong  and  his  body 
sound.  He  should  not  be  rejected,  however, 
if  he  does  not  perform  them  all  very  finely ; 
as  many  animals  fail,  not  from  inability  but 
from  want  of  practice  in  these  feats.  With 
instruction,  habit,  and  practice  they  may  do 
all  finely,  provided  they  are  sound  and  not 
vicious.  But  you  must  beware  of  horses  that 
are  naturally  shy.  The  over-timid  let  no 
harm  come  to  the  enemy  from  off  their  backs, 
and  they  often  throw  the  rider  and  bring 
him  into  the  greatest  danger. 

You  must  learn,  too,  whether  the  horse 
has  any  particular  vice,  shown  towards  other 
horses  or  towards  men,  and  whether  he  is 
very  skittish.  These  are  all  troublesome 
matters  for  his  owner.  You  could  much 
better  discover  objections  to  being  bridled 
and  mounted  and  other  vices,  by  trying   to 


26  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

do  over  again,  after  the  horse  has  finished 
his  work,  just  what  you  did  before  beginning 
your  ride.  Horses  that  are  ready  to  submit 
to  a  task  the  second  time,  after  having  done 
it  once,  give  proof  enough  of  high  spirit. 
To  sum  it  all  up,  the  least  troublesome  and 
the  most  serviceable  to  his  rider  in  the  wars 
would  naturally  be  the  horse  that  is  sound- 
footed,  gentle,  sufficiently  fleet,  ready  and 
able  to  undergo  fatigue,  and,  first  and  fore- 
most, obedient.  On  the  other  hand,  horses 
that  need  much  urging  from  laziness  or  much 
coaxing  and  attention  from  being  too  mettle- 
some, keep  the  rider's  hands  always  engaged, 
and  take  away  his  courage  in  moments  of 
danger. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


w 


HEN  one  has  bought  a  horse  that  he 
really    admires,    and    has    taken     him 


m 


home,  it  is  a  good  thing  to  have  his  stall 
such  a  part  of  the  establishment  that  his 
master  shall  very  often  have  an  eye  ^'  on  the 
animal ;  it  is  well,  too,  that  the  stable  should 
be  so  arranged  that  the  horse's  food  can  no 
more  be  stolen  out  of  the  manger  than  his 
master's  out  of  the  storeroom.  In  my  opin- 
ion, the  man  who  neglects  this  matter  is 
neglecting  himself;  for  it  is  plain  that  in 
moments  of  danger  the  master  gives  his  own 
life  into  the  keeping  of  his  horse.  A  secure 
stable  is  a  good  thing,  not  only  to  prevent 


28  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

the  stealing  of  grain,  but  also  because  you 
can  easily  tell  when  the  horse  refuses  his 
feed.  Observing  this,  you  may  know  either 
that  there  is  too  much  blood  in  him,  or  that 
he  has  been  overworked  and  wants  rest,  or 
that  barley  surfeit"  or  some  other  disease  is 
coming  on.  In  the  horse,  as  in  the  man,  all 
diseases  are  easier  to  cure  at  the  start  than 
after  they  have  become  chronic  and  have 
been  wrongly  diagnosed. 

The  same  care  which  is  given  to  the 
horse's  food  and  exercise,  to  make  his  body 
grow  strong,  should  also  be  devoted  to  keep- 
ing his  feet  in  condition.  Even  naturally 
sound  hoofs  get  spoiled  in  stalls  with  moist, 
smooth  floors.  The  floors  should  be  slop- 
ing, to  avoid  moisture,  and,  to  prevent 
smoothness,  stones ^^  should  be  sunk  close  to 
one  another,  each  about  the  size  of  the 
hoofs.  The  mere  standing  on  such  floors 
strengthens  the  feet.  Further,  of  course,  the 
groom  should  lead  the  horse  out  somewhere 
to  rub  him  down,  and  should  loose  him 
from  the  manger  after  breakfast,  so  that  he 
may  go  to  dinner  the  more  readily.  This 
place  outside  of  the  stall  would  be  best  suited 


CHAPTER   IV.  29 

to  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the  horse's 
feet  if  you  threw  down  loosely  four  or  five 
cartloads  of  round  stones,  each  big  enough  to 
fill  your  hand  and  about  a  pound  and  a  half 
in  weight,  surrounding  the  whole  with  an 
iron  border  to  keep  them  from  getting  scat- 
tered. Standing  on  these  would  be  as  good 
for  him  as  travelling  a  stony  road  for  some 
part  of  every  day;  and  whether  he  is  being 
rubbed  down  or  is  teased  by  horseflies,  he 
has  to  use  his  hoofs  exactly  as  he  does  in 
walking.  Stones  strewn  about  in  this  way 
strengthen  the  frogs  too.  As  for  his  mouth, 
you  must  take  as  much  care  to  make  it  soft 
as  you  take  to  make  his  hoofs  hard ;  and  the 
same  treatment  softens  a  horse's  mouth  that 
softens  a  man's  flesh.^-^ 


CHAPTER  V. 


TT  is  also  a  horseman's  duty,  I  think,  to 
-*-  see  that  his  groom  is  taught  the  proper 
way  to  treat  the  horse.  First  of  all,  he 
ought  to  know  that  he  should  never  make 
the  knot  in  the  halter  at  the  place  where  the 
head-piece  fits  round.  The  horse  often  rubs 
his  head  against  the  manger,  and  it  may 
make  sores  if  the  halter  is  not  easy  about 
the  ears ;  and  of  course  when  there  are  sores, 
then  the  horse  must  be  somewhat  fretful 
in  bridling  and  grooming.  It  is  well  that 
the  groom  should  have  orders  to  carry  out 


CHAPTER  V.  31 

the  droppings  and  the  litter  every  day  to 
a  given  place ;  by  doing  so  he  may  get  rid  of 
it  in  the  easiest  way  for  himself,  and  would  be 
doing  the  horse  good  too.  The  groom  must 
understand  that  he  is  to  put  the  muzzle  ^^ 
on  the  horse  when  he  leads  him  out  to  be 
rubbed  down  or  to  the  place  where  he  rolls  ;  ^^ 
in  fact,  the  horse  ought  always  to  be  muzzled 
whenever  he  is  taken  anywhere  without  a 
bridle.  The  muzzle,  without  hindering  his 
breathing,  allows  no  biting,  and  when  it  is 
on,  it  serves  to  keep  horses  from  mischievous 
designs.  The  horse  should  by  all  means  be 
fastened  from  above  his  head ;  for  instinct 
makes  him  toss  his  head  up  when  anything 
is  worrying  him  about  his  face,  and  if  he  is 
fastened  in  this  way,  the  tossing  slackens  the 
halter  instead  of  pulling  it  taut. 

In  grooming,  begin  with  the  head  and 
mane ;  if  the  upper  parts  are  not  clean,  it  is 
waste  labour  to  clean  the  lower  parts.  Next 
raise  the  hair  on  the  rest  of  the  body  by  the 
use  of  all  the  ordinary  cleaning  implements,^^ 
and  then  clear  away  the  dust  by  working 
with  the  grain  of  the  hair;  but  the  hair  on 
the  backbone  should  never  be  touched  by 


^2  XENOrHON   ON    HORSEMANSHIP. 

any  implement  at  all.  It  is  to  be  rubbed 
with  the  hand,  and  softly  smoothed  in  its 
natural  direction ;  for  thus  the  seat  would  be 
least  injured.  The  head,  however,  must  be 
washed  with  water;  -^  it  is  bony,  and  to  clean 
it  with  iron  or  wood  would  hurt  the  horse. 
The  forelock  also  should  be  wetted ;  this  hair, 
even  though  pretty  long,  does  not  prevent 
the  horse  from  seeing,  but  clears  away  from 
his  eyes  things  that  would  hurt  them.  The 
gods,  we  must  believe,  gave  this  tuft  to  the 
horse  instead  of  the  huge  ears  which  the}^  gave 
to  asses  and  mules  to  protect  their  eyes. 

The  tail  and  mane  should  be  washed,  seeing 
that  the  hair  must  be  made  to  grow  on  the 
tail,  so  that  the  horse,  reaching  out  as  far  as 
possible,  may  switch  away  things  that  tor- 
ment him,  and  made  to  grow  on  the  neck 
to  afford  plenty  to  take  hold  of  in  mounting. 
The  mane,  forelock,  and  tail  are  gifts  of  the 
gods  bestowed  on  the  horse  for  beauty.^^ 
A  proof  is  that  brood  mares,  as  long  as 
their  hair  is  flowing,  are  not  so  apt  to  admit 
asses,  whence  all  breeders  of  mules  cut  off 
the  hairdo  from  their  mares  preparatory  to 
covering. 


CHAPTER  V. 


33 


Washing  down  of  the  legs  is  a  thing  I  abso- 
lutely forbid ;  it  does  no  good,  —  on  the 
contrar)',  daily  washing  is  bad  for  the  hoofs. 
And  washing  under  the  belly  should  be  done 
very  sparingly;  it  worries  the  horse  more 
than  washing  anywhere  else,  and  the  cleaner 
these  parts  are  made,  the  more  they  attract 
things  under  the  belly  that  would  torment  it. 
And  no  matter  what  pains  one  has  spent  on 
it,  the  horse  is  no  sooner  led  out  than  it  gets 
exactly  as  dirty  as  before.  These  parts,  then, 
should  be  let  alone ;  and  as  for  the  legs,  rub- 
bing with  the  mere  hand  is  quite  enough. 


CHAPTER   VL 


NEXT  I  shall  explain  how  a  man  may 
groom  a  horse  with  the  least  danger 
to  himself  and  the  greatest  good  to  the 
animal.  If  he  tries  to  clean  him  facing  with 
the  horse,  he  runs  the  risk  of  a  blow  in  the 
face  from  knee  or  hoof;  but  if  he  faces  just 
the  other  way  and  outside  the  reach  of  the  leg, 
when  he  cleans  him,  and  takes  his  place  off 
the  shoulder-blade  in  rubbing  him  down,  he 
will  not  be  harmed  at  all,  and  may  even 
bend  back  the  hoof  and  attend  to  the  horse's 
frog.  Let  him  clean  the  hind  legs  in  the 
same  way.  The  man  that  takes  care  of  the 
horse  should  know  that  both  in  this  matter 
and  in  everything  else  which  has  to  be  done, 
the  very  last  places  at  which  he  should 
approach  to  do   it  are  in  front  and  behind; 


CHAPTER  VI.  35 

for  if  the  horse  means  mischief,  these  are  the 
two  points  at  which  he  has  the  advantage 
of  a  man.  But  by  approaching  him  at  the 
side  you  can  handle  him  most  freely  and 
with  the  least  danger  to  yourself. 

When  a  horse  is  to  be  led,  I  certainly  do 
not  approve  of  leading  him  behind  you ;  for 
then  you  have  the  least  chance  to  look  out 
for  yourself,  and  the  horse  has  the  best  chance 
to  do  whatever  he  likes.  Then  again  I  object 
to  teaching  the  horse  to  go  on  ahead  with  a 
long  leading-rein.  The  reason  is  that  the 
horse  can  then  do  mischief  on  either  side  he 
pleases,  and  can  even  whirl  round  and  face 
his  leader.  Why,  only  think  of  several 
horses  led  together  in  this  fashion,  —  how  in 
the  world  could  they  be  kept  away  from  one 
another?  But  a  horse  that  is  accustomed  to 
be  led  by  the  side  can  do  the  least  mischief 
to  other  horses  and  to  men,  and  would  be 
most  convenient  and  ready  for  the  rider, 
especially  if  he  should  ever  have  to  mount 
in  a  hurry. 

In  order  to  put  the  bridle  on  properly,  the 
groom  should  first  come  up  on  the  near  3'  side 
of  the  horse ;    then,  throwing  the  reins  over 


36  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

the  head  and  letting  them  drop  on  the 
withers,  he  should  take  the  head-piece  ^^  in 
his  right  hand  and  offer  the  bit  with  his  left. 
If  the  horse  receives  it,  of  course  the  head- 
stalp3  is  to  be  put  on;  but  if  he  does  not 
open  his  mouth,  the  bit  should  be  held 
against  his  teeth  and  the  thumb  of  the  left 
hand  thrust  within  his  jaw.  This  makes  most 
horses  open  the  mouth.  If  he  does  not 
receive  the  bit  even  then,  press  his  lip  hard 
against  the  tush ;  very  few  horses  refuse  it  on 
feeling  this. 

Let  your  groom  be  well  instructed  in  the 
following  points :  first,  never  to  lead  the 
horse  by  one  rein,^^  for  this  makes  one  side  of 
the  mouth  harder  than  the  other;  secondly, 
what  is  the  proper  distance  of  the  bit  from 
the  corners  of  the  mouth:  if  too  close,  it 
makes  the  mouth  callous,  so  that  it  has  no 
delicacy  of  feeling;  but  if  the  bit  hangs  too 
low  down  in  the  mouth,  the  horse  can  take  it 
in  his  teeth  and  so  refuse  to  mind  it. 

The  following  must  also  be  urged  strongly 
upon  the  groom  if  any  work  at  all  is  to  be 
done.  Willingness  to  receive  the  bit  is 
such  an  important  point  that  a  horse  which 


CHAPTER  VI.  37 

refuses  it  is  utterly  useless.  Now,  if  the 
bridle  is  put  on  not  only  when  he  is  going 
to  be  worked,  but  also  when  he  is  led  to  his 
food  and  home  after  exercise,  it  would  not  be 
at  all  strange  if  he  should  seize  the  bit  of  his 
own  accord  when  you  hold  it  out  to  him.  It 
is  well  for  the  groom  to  understand  hovv  to  put 
a  rider  up  Persian  fashion,35  so  that  his  master, 
if  he  gets  infirm  or  has  grown  oldish,  may 
himself  have  somebody  to  mount  him  hand- 
ily or  may  be  able  to  oblige  another  with  a 
person  to  mount  him. 

The  one  great  precept  and  practice  in 
using  a  horse  is  this,  —  never  deal  with  him 
when  you  are  in  a  fit  of  passion.  A  fit  of 
passion  is  a  thing  that  has  no  foresight  in  it, 
and  so  we  often  have  to  rue  the  day  when  we 
gave  way  to  it.  Consequently,  when  your 
horse  shies  at  an  object  and  is  unwilling  to 
go  up  to  it,  he  should  be  shown  that  there  is 
nothing  fearful  in  it,  least  of  all  to  a  coura- 
geous horse  like  him ;  ^^  but  if  this  fails,  touch 
the  object  yourself  that  seems  so  dreadful  to 
him,  and  lead  him  up  to  it  with  gentleness. 
Compulsion  and  blows  inspire  only  the  more 
fear ;   for  when  horses  are  at  all  hurt  at  such 


38 


XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 


a  time,  they  think  that  what  they  shied  at  is 
the  cause  of  the  hurt. 

I  do  not  find  fault  with  a  horse  for  knowing 
how  to  settle  down  ^7  so  as  to  be  mounted 
easily,  when  the  groom  delivers  him  to 
the  rider;  still,  I  think  that  the  true  horse- 
man ought  to  practise  and  be  able  to  mount 
even  if  the  horse  does  not  so  offer  himself. 
Different  horses  fall  to  one's  lot  at  different 
times,  and  the  same  horse  serves  you  one 
way  at  one  time  and  another  at  another. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


I  SHALL  next  set  down  the  method  of 
riding  which  the  horseman  may  find 
best  for  himself  and  his  horse,  when  once  he 
has  received  him  for  mounting.  First,  then, 
with  the  left  hand  he  must  take  up  lightly 
the  halter  ^^  which  hangs  from  the  chin-strap  ^9 
or  the  noseband,  holding  it  so  slack  as  not  to 
check  the  horse,  whether  he  intends  to  raise 
himself  by  laying  hold  of  the  mane  about 
the  ears,"^*^  and  to  mount  in  that  way,  or 
whether  he  vaults  on  from  his  spear.'^'  With 
the  right  hand,  he  must  then  take  the  reins 


40  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

at  the  withers  and  also  grasp  the  mane,  so 
that  he  may  not  wrench  the  horse's  mouth  at 
all  as  he  gets  up.  In  springing  to  his  place, 
he  must  draw  up  the  body  with  the  left  hand, 
keeping  his  right  stiff  as  he  raises  himself 
with  it;  for  in  mounting  thus,  he  will  not 
look  ungraceful  even  from  behind.  The  leg 
should  be  kept  bent,  the  knee  must  not 
touch  the  horse's  back,  and  the  calf  must 
be  brought  clean  over  to  the  off  side.  After 
having  brought  his  foot  completely  round,  he 
is  then  to  settle  down  in  his  seat  on  the 
horse.  I  think  it  good  that  the  horseman 
should  practise  springing  up  from  the  off 
side  as  well,  on  the  chance  that  he  may 
happen  to  be  leading  his  horse  with  the  left 
hand  and  holding  his  spear  in  his  right.  He 
has  only  to  learn  to  do  with  the  left  what 
he  did  before  with  the  right,  and  with  the 
right  what  he  did  with  the  left.  Another 
reason  why  I  approve  of  the  latter  method 
of  mounting  is  that  the  moment  he  is  on 
horseback  the  rider  would  be  completely 
ready,  if  he  should  have  to  engage  the  enemy 
all  of  a  sudden. 

When   the    rider   takes    his    seat,   whether 


,-a^^ 


mam 


CHAPTER  VII.  41 

bareback  or  on  the  cloth,^^  I  do  not  approve 
of  a  seat  which  is  as  though  the  man  were 
on  a  chair,  but  rather  as  though  he  were 
standing  upright  with  his  legs  apart.  Thus 
he  would  get  a  better  grip  with  his  thighs 
on  the  horse,  and,  being  upright,  he  could 
hurl  his  javelin  more  vigorously  and  strike 
a  better  blow  from  on  horseback,  if  need 
be.  His  foot  and  leg  from  the  knee  down 
should  hang  loosely,  for  if  he  keeps  his  leg 
stiff  and  should  strike  it  against  something, 
he  might  get  it  broken;  but  a  supple  leg 
would  yield,  if  it  struck  against  anything, 
without  at  all  disturbing  the  thigh.  Then, 
too,  the  rider  should  accustom  himself  to 
keep  his  body  above  the  hips  as  supple  as 
possible ;  for  this  would  give  him  greater 
power  of  action,  and  he  would  be  less  liable 
to  a  fall  if  somebody  should  try  to  pull  or 
push  him  off.  The  horse  should  be  taught 
to  stand  still  when  the  rider  is  taking  his  seat, 
and  until  he  has  drawn  his  skirts  from  under 
him,  if  necessary,  made  the  reins  even,  and 
taken  the  most  convenient  grasp  of  his  spear. 
Let  him  then  keep  his  left  arm  at  his  side ; 
this  will  give  the  rider  the  tidiest  look,  and  to 


42  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

his  hand  the  greatest  power.  As  for  reins,  I 
recommend  such  as  are  alike,  not  weak  nor 
slippery  and  not  thick  either,  so  that  if 
necessary  the  hand  may  hold  the  spear  as 
well. 

When  the  horse  gets  the  signal  to  start,  let 
him  begin  at  a  walk,  for  this  frets  him  least. 
If  the  horse  carries  his  head  low,  hold  the 
reins  with  the  hands  a  bit  high ;  if  he  carries 
it  somewhat  high,  then  rather  low:  this 
would  make  the  most  graceful  appearance. 
Next,  by  taking  the  true  trot  the  horse  would 
relax  his  body  with  the  least  discomfort,  and 
come  with  the  greatest  ease  into  the  hand 
gallop.  And  as  leading  with  the  left  is  the 
more  approved  way,  this  lead  would  best  be 
reached  if  the  signal  to  gallop  should  be 
given  the  horse  at  the  moment  when  he  is 
rising  with  his  right  in  the  trot;  for,  being 
about  to  raise  his  left  foot  next,  he  would 
lead  with  it  and  would  begin  the  stride  as  he 
comes  over  to  the  left,  —  for  the  horse  in- 
stinctively leads  with  the  right  on  turning 
to  the  right,  and  with  the  left  on  turning  to 
the  left.43 

I  recommend  the   exercise  known  as   the 


CHAPTER  VII.  43 

Volte,  because  it  accustoms  the  horse  to  turn 
on  either  jaw.  Changing  the  direction  is  also 
a  good  thing,  that  the  jaws  on  either  side 
may  be  equally  suppled.  But  I  recommend 
the  Career  with  sharp  turns  at  each  end 
rather  than  the  complete  Volte ;  for  the 
horse  would  like  turning  better  after  he  has 
had  enough  of  the  straight  course,  and  thus 
would  be  practising  straight-away  running 
and  turning  at  the  same  time.  He  must 
be  collected  at  the  turns,  because  it  is  not 
easy  or  safe  for  the  horse  to  make  short 
turns  when  he  is  at  full  speed,  especially  if 
the  ground  is  uneven  or  slippery.  When 
the  rider  collects  him,  he  must  not  throw  the 
horse  aslant  at  all  with  the  bit,  nor  sit  at  all 
aslant  himself;  else  he  must  be  well  aware, 
that  a  slight  matter  will  be  enough  to  bring 
himself  and  his  horse  to  the  ground.  The 
moment  the  horse  faces  the  stretch  after 
finishing  the  turn,  the  rider  should  push  him 
on  to  go  faster.  In  war,  of  course,  turns  are 
executed  for  the  purpose  of  pursuing  or 
retreating;  hence  it  is  well  that  he  should 
be  trained  to  speed  after  turning. 

After  the  horse  appears  to  have  had  enough 


44 


XENOPHON   ON  HORSEMANSHIP. 


exercise,  it  is  well  to  give  him  a  rest  and  then 
to  urge  him  suddenly  to  the  top  of  his  speed, 
either  away  from  other  horses  or  towards 
them;  then  to  quiet  him  down  out  of  his 
speed  by  pulling  him  up  very  short,  and 
again,  after  a  halt,  to  turn  him  and  push  him 
on.  It  is  very  certain  that  there  will  come 
times  when  each  of  these  manoeuvres  will  be 
necessary.  When  the  moment  comes  to  dis- 
mount, never  do  so  among  other  horses,  nor 
in  a  crowd  of  bystanders,  nor  outside  of  the 
riding-ground ;  but  let  the  horse  enjoy  a 
season  of  rest  in  the  very  place  where  he  is 
obliged  to  work. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THERE  are  many  occasions,  of  course, 
when  the  horse  will  have  to  run  down 
hill  and  up  hill  and  along  a  slope,  as  well  as 
to  take  a  leap  across  or  out  of  something  and 
to  jump  down.  So  all  these  movements  must 
be  learned  and  practised  by  both  horse  and 
rider.  The  two  will  thus  become  obviously 
the  more  helpful  and  useful  to  one  another. 
If  it  is  thought  that  I  am  repeating  myself 
because  I  am  speaking  now  of  what  I  have 
spoken  before,  let  me  say  that  there  is  no 
repetition  here.  I  did  lay  down  that  you 
should  try  whether  the  horse  could  do  all 
this  at  the  time  you  bought  him ;  but  what 
I  am  now  urging  is  that  a  man  should  teach 


46  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

his  own  horse,  and  I  shall  describe  the  right 
method  of  instruction. 

With  a  horse  that  has  no  experience  what- 
ever in  leaping,  take  him  with  the  leading 
rein  loose  and  leap  across  the  ditch  before 
him;  then  draw  the  rein  tight  to  make  him 
jump  over.  If  he  refuses,  let  somebody  with 
a  whip  or  stick  lay  it  on  pretty  hard ;  he  will 
then  jump  over  not  merely  the  proper  dis- 
tance but  a  great  deal  more  than  is  required. 
He  will  never  need  a  blow  after  that,  but  will 
jump  the  minute  he  sees  anybody  coming  up 
behind  him.  When  he  is  used  to  taking  a 
leap  in  this  way,  let  the  rider  mount  and  put 
him  first  at  small  and  then  at  larger  ditches, 
pricking  him  with  the  spur^^  just  as  he  is 
about  to  leap.  Prick  him  with  the  spur  in 
the  same  way  in  teaching  him  to  leap  up 
and  to  leap  down.  If  the  horse  uses  his 
whole  body  at  once  for  all  these,  it  will  be 
much  safer  for  him  and  for  his  rider  than  if 
his  quarters  are  not  well  gathered  in  as  he 
leaps  or  jumps  up  or  down. 

Going  down  hill  must  be  taught  him  at 
first  on  soft  ground,  and  finally,  when  he  gets 
used   to   it,  he  will   like  to   run  down  much 


CHAPTER  VIII.  47 

more  than  to  run  up.  As  for  the  fears  that 
some  folks  feel  of  dislocating  the  horse's 
shoulders  in  riding  down  hill,  they  should 
take  courage  from  the  knowledge  that  the 
horses  of  the  Persians  and  Odrysians/s  all  of 
whom  habitually  run  their  races  down  hill, 
are  not  a  bit  less  sound  than  Greek  horses. 

I  shall  not  omit  to  tell  how  the  rider  him- 
self ought  to  conform  to  all  these  movements. 
When  the  horse  bolts  suddenly  off,  the  rider 
should  lean  forward,  for  then  the  horse  would 
be  less  likely  to  draw  in  under  the  rider  and 
jolt  him  up ;  but  he  should  bend  back  when 
the  horse  is  being  brought  to  a  poise,  as  he 
would  then  be  less  jolted.  In  leaping  a  ditch 
or  running  up  hill,  it  is  not  a  bad  thing  to  lay 
hold  of  the  mane,^*"  so  that  the  horse  may  not 
be  troubled  by  the  bit  and  the  ground  at  the 
same  time.  Going  down  a  steep  place,  the 
rider  should  throw  himself  well  back,  and 
support  the  horse  by  the  bit,  so  that  rider 
and  horse  may  not  be  carried  headlong  down 
the  hill. 

It  is  well  that  the  rides  should  be  in  dif- 
ferent directions  occasionally,  and  that  they 
should    be    sometimes    long   and    sometimes 


48  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

short.  The  horse  is  apt  to  disHke''''  this 
less  than  riding  ahvays  in  the  same  places 
and  over  the  same  distance.  The  rider 
must  have  a  firm  seat  when  going  at  full 
speed  over  all  sorts  of  ground,  and  must  also 
be  able  to  use  his  weapons  well  on  horse- 
back. Hence  there  is  nothing  to  be  said 
against  the  practice  of  riding  in  the  hunt, 
where  there  is  a  suitable  country  with  wild 
animals ;  ^^  but  where  these  are  not  to  be  had, 
it  is  good  training  for  two  riders  to  arrange 
together,  one  to  fly  from  the  other  on  horse- 
back over  all  sorts  of  ground,  wheeling  about 
with  his  spear  and  retreating  again,  while  the 
other  pursues  with  buttons  on  his  javelins 
and  on  his  spear.  Whenever  he  gets  within 
javelin-shot,  he  is  to  hurl  his  button-tipped 
javelins  at  the  runner,  and  to  strike  him  with 
his  spear  when  he  overtakes  him  within  strik- 
ing distance.  If  they  come  to  close  quarters, 
it  is  well  for  one  to  pull  his  adversary  towards 
him  and  then  to  thrust  him  back  all  of  a  sud- 
den;  this  is  the  way  to  unhorse  him.  But 
the  proper  thing  for  the  man  who  is  being 
pulled  to  do,  is  to  urge  his  horse  forward; 
for  by  so   doing,  he  will   be   more  likely  to 


CHAPTER  VIII.  49 

unhorse  the  other  man  than  to  get  a  fall 
himself. 

And  if  ever  there  is  cavalry  skirmishing, 
when  two  armies  are  set  in  array  against  each 
other,  and  the  one  side  pursues  even  to  the 
enemy's  main  body,  while  the  other  retreats 
among  its  friends,  it  is  well  just  here  to  bear 
in  mind  that  while  one  is  among  his  friends 
he  is  both  brave  and  safe  in  wheeling  among 
the  first  and  pressing  on  at  full  speed,  but 
that  when  he  gets  near  the  foe  he  should 
keep  his  horse  well  in  hand ;  for  thus,  while 
doing  hurt  to  the  enemy,  he  could  probably 
best  escape  being  hurt  by  them  himself. 

The  gods  have  bestowed  upon  man  the  gift 
of  teaching  his  brother  man  what  he  ought  to 
do  by  word  of  mouth ;  but  it  is  evident  that 
by  word  of  mouth  you  can  teach  a  horse 
nothing.  If,  however,  you  reward  him  with 
kindness  after  he  has  done  as  you  wish,  and 
punish  him  when  he  disobeys,  he  will  be  most 
likely  to  learn  to  obey  as  he  ought.  This 
rule,  to  be  sure,  may  be  expressed  in  a  few 
words,  but  it  holds  good  in  every  branch  of 
the  art  of  horsemanship.  For  instance,  he 
would  receive  the  bit  the  more  readily  if 
4 


50 


XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 


some  good  should  come  of  it  every  time  he 
received  it;  and  he  will  leap  and  jump  up 
and  obey  in  all  the  rest  if  he  looks  forward 
to  a  season  of  rest  on  finishing  what  he  has 
been  directed  to  do. 


CHAPTER   IX. 


SO  far,  then,  it  has  been  stated  how  a  per- 
son would  be  least  likely  to  be  cheated 
in  buying  a  colt  or  a  horse,  and  least  likely 
to  spoil  him  in  use,  but  particularly  how  one 
could  produce  a  horse  with  all  the  qualities 
that  a  rider  needs  in  war.  Now,  on  the 
chance  that  you  should  happen  to  have  a 
horse  that  is  either  too  high-mettled  for  the 
occasion  or  too  sluggish,  this  is  perhaps  the 


52  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

proper  time  to  set  down  how  to  treat  either 
one  in  the  most  correct  fashion.  In  the  first 
place  you  are  to  know  that  mettle  is  to  a 
horse  what  temper  is  to  a  man.  Exactly, 
therefore,  as  a  man  who  neither  says  nor  does 
anything  harsh  would  be  least  likely  to  rouse 
the  temper  of  his  neighbour,  so  one  who 
avoids  fretting  a  high-mettled  horse  would  be 
the  last  to  exasperate  him.  At  the  very  out- 
set, then,  in  mounting,  care  should  be  taken  to 
mount  without  annoying  him.  After  mount- 
ing, the  rider  should  sit  quiet  more  than  the 
ordinary  time,  and  then  move  him  forward 
by  the  most  gentle  signs  possible.  Next, 
beginning  very  slowly,  induce  him  in  turn  to 
quicker  paces  in  such  a  way  that  the  horse 
may  reach  full  speed  almost  without  know- 
ing it.  Every  abrupt  sign  that  you  make 
him  —  sudden  sights,  sounds,  or  impressions 
—  all  disturb  a  high-mettled  horse  just  as 
they  do  a  man.  [Abruptness,  you  must  re- 
member, always  confuses  a  horse.^^j  if  you 
want  to  collect  a  high-mettled  horse  when  he 
is  dashing  along  faster  than  is  convenient, 
you  should  not  draw  rein  abruptly,  but 
should   win    him   over   gently   with   the    bit, 


CHAPTER   IX.  53 

calming  him  down  and  not  forcing  him  to  be 
still.  Long  stretches,  rather  than  frequent 
turns,  calm  horses  down,  and  leisurely  riding 
for  a  good  while  soothes,  calms  down,  and 
does  not  rouse  the  spirit  of  the  horse  of 
mettle.  But  if  anybody  expects  to  calm 
such  a  horse  down  by  tiring  him  out  with 
riding  swiftly  and  far,  his  supposition  is  just 
the  reverse  of  the  truth;  these  are  exactly 
the  circumstances  in  which  the  high-mettled 
horse  tries  to  carry  the  day  by  main  force, 
and  in  his  wrath,  like  an  angry  man,  he  often 
does  much  irreparable  harm  to  himself  and 
his  rider.  A  high-mettled  horse  must  be 
kept  from  dashing  on  at  full  speed,  and 
utterly  prevented  from  racing  with  another; 
for,  as  a  rule,  remember,  the  most  ambitious 
horses  are  the  highest-mettled. 

Smooth  bits  5°  are  more  suitable  for  such 
horses  than  rough ;  but  if  a  rough  one  is  put 
in,  it  must  be  made  as  easy  as  the  smooth 
by  lightness  of  hand.  It  is  well  also  to  get 
into  the  habit  of  sitting  quiet,  especially  on  a 
high-mettled  horse,  and  utterly  to  avoid  touch- 
ing him  with  any  other  part  than  those  which 
we  use  in  securing  a  firm  seat.      You   must 


54  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

know  that  it  is  orthodox  to  calm  him  down 
with  a  chirrup  5'  and  to  rouse  him  by  cluck- 
ing; still,  if  from  the  first  you  should  cluck 
when  caressing  and  chirrup  when  punishing, 
the  horse  would  learn  to  start  up  at  the 
chirrup  and  calm  down  at  a  cluck.  So  when 
a  shout  is  raised  or  a  trumpet  blown,  you 
should  not  let  him  see  you  disturbed,  least 
of  all  should  you  do  anything  to  alarm  him, 
but  should  quiet  him  down  so  far  as  you  can 
at  such  a  time,  and  give  him  his  breakfast 
or  his  dinner  if  circumstances  should  permit. 
But  the  best  piece  of  advice  I  can  give  is  not 
to  get  a  very  high-mettled  horse  to  use  in 
war. 

As  for  a  sluggish  horse,  I  think  it  sufficient 
to  set  down  that  your  method  of  handling 
him  should  at  all  times  be  just  the  opposite 
to  that  which  I  recommended  in  the  case  of 
the  high-mettled  one.s^ 


CHAPTER   X. 


I 


F  you  desire  to  handle  a  good  war-horse 
so  as  to  make  his  action  the  more  mag- 
nificent and  striking,  you  must  refrain  from 
pulHng  at  his  mouth  with  the  bit  as  well  as 
from  spurring  and  whipping  him.  Most 
people  think  that  this  is  the  way  to  make 
him  look  fine;  but  they  only  produce  an 
efTect  exactly  contrary  to  what  they  desire, — 
they  positively  blind  their  horses  by  jerking 
the  mouth  up  instead  of  letting  them  look 
forward,  and  by  spurring  and  striking  scare 
them  into  disorder  and  danger.     This  is  the 


56  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

way  horses  behave  that  are  fretted  by  their 
riders  into  ugly  and  ungraceful  action ;  but 
if  you  teach  your  horse  to  go  with  a  light 
hand  on  the  bit,  and  yet  to  hold  his  head 
well  up  and  to  arch  his  neck,  you  will  be 
making  him  do  just  what  the  animal  himself 
glories  and  delights  in.  A  proof  that  he 
really  delights  in  it  is  that  when  a  horse  is 
turned  loose  and  runs  off  to  join  other  horses, 
and  especially  towards  mares,  then  he  holds 
his  head  up  as  high  as  he  can,  arches  his 
neck  in  the  most  spirited  style,  lifts  his  legs 
with  free  action,  and  raises  his  tail.  So 
when  he  is  induced  by  a  man  to  assume 
all  the  airs  and  graces  which  he  puts  on 
of  himself  when  he  is  showing  off  voluntarily, 
the  result  is  a  horse  that  likes  to  be  ridden, 
that  presents  a  magnificent  sight,  that  looks 
alert,  that  is  the  observed  of  all  observers. 
I  shall  now  attempt  to  explain  how  I  think 
this  result  may  be  obtained. 

In  the  first  place  you  must  own  at  least 
two  bits. 53  Let  one  of  them  be  smooth, 
with  the  discs  on  it  good-sized ;  the  other 
with  the  discs  heavy,  and  not  standing  so 
high,    but   with    the    echini    sharp,    so    that. 


CHAPTER   X.      •  57 

when  he  seizes  it,  he  may  drop  it  from  dis- 
like of  its  roughness.  Then,  when  he  shall 
have  received  the  smooth  bit  in  its  turn,  he 
will  like  its  smoothness  and  do  everything 
on  the  smooth  bit  which  he  has  been  trained 
to  do  on  the  rough.  He  may,  however,  come 
not  to  mind  its  smoothness  and  to  bear  hard 
upon  it;  and  this  is  why  we  put  the  large 
discs  on  the  smooth  bit,  to  make  him  keep 
his  jaws  apart  and  drop  the  bit.  You  can 
make  the  rough  bit  anything  you  like  by 
holding  it  lightly  or  drawing  it  tight. 

No  matter  what  the  kind  of  bit,  it  must 
always  be  flexible.  When  a  horse  seizes  a 
stiff  bit,  he  holds  the  whole  of  it  at  once 
against  his  bars ;  he  lifts  it  all,  just  as  a  man 
does  a  spit,  at  whatever  point  he  takes  it  up. 
But  the  other  kind  acts  like  a  chain ;  only  the 
part  that  you  are  grasping  remains  unbend- 
ing, and  the  rest  hangs  loose.  So,  as  the 
horse  is  always  after  the  part  that  is  getting 
away  from  him  in  his  mouth,  he  drops  the 
bit  from  his  bars.  For  the  same  reason  little 
rings  are  hung  from  the  joints  of  the  bit  in 
the  middle,  so  that  the  horse,  in  trying  to 
catch  them  with  his  tongue  and  teeth,  may 


58         XENOPHON  ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

not  think  of  snatching  up  the  bit  against  his 
bars.54 

I  will  set  down  the  definitions  of  flexible 
and  stiff  bits,  in  case  some  reader  may  not 
know  them.  The  bit  is  flexible  when  the 
joints  are  broad  and  smooth  where  they  meet, 
so  that  it  bends  easily;  and  all  the  pieces  put 
on  round  the  joints  are  more  likely  to  be 
flexible  if  they  are  roomy  and  not  tight.  On 
the  contrary,  if  the  different  parts  of  the  bit 
do  not  run  and  play  into  each  other  easily, 
the  bit  is  a  stiff  one. 

Whatever  the  kind  of  bit,  it  must  be  used 
according  to  the  following  rules,  which  are 
in  every  case  the  same,  provided  that  it  is 
desired  to  give  a  horse  the  look  that  has  been 
described.  The  horse's  mouth  must  not  be 
checked  too  harshly,  so  that  he  will  toss  his 
head,  nor  too  gently  for  him  to  feel  it.  The 
moment  he  acknowledges  it  and  begins  to 
raise  his  neck,  give  him  the  bit.  And  in 
everything  else,  as  I  have  insisted  over  and 
over  again,  the  horse  should  be  rewarded 
as  long  as  he  behaves  well.  When  you  see  a 
horse  show  his  pleasure  by  carrying  his  neck 
high   and   yielding  to  the   hand,  there  is  no 


CHAPTER  X.  59 

need  of  using  harsh  measures,  as  though  you 
were  forcing  him  to  work;  he  should  rather 
be  coaxed  on,  as  when  you  wish  him  to  rest. 
He  will  then  go  forward  most  cheerfully  to 
his  swift  paces.  A  proof  that  the  horse 
enjoys  fast  running  is  that  when  he  has  got 
loose  he  never  moves  at  a  walk,  but  runs.  It 
is  his  nature  to  enjoy  it,  unless  he  is  obliged 
to  run  an  excessive  distance.  Neither  horse 
nor  man  likes  anything  in  the  world  that  is 
excessive. 

When  it  comes  to  his  riding  in  a  proud 
and  stately  style,  —  in  the  first  part  of  his 
training  we  accustomed  him,  you  remember, 
to  dash  forward  at  full  speed  after  making 
the  turns.  Well,  after  he  has  learned  this,  if 
you  support  him  by  the  bit  and  at  the  same 
moment  give  him  one  of  the  signs  to  dash 
forward,  the  bit  holds  him  in  and  the  signal 
to  advance  rouses  him  up.  He  will  then 
throw  out  his  chest  and  raise  his  legs  rather 
high,  and  furiously  though  not  flexibly ;  for 
horses  do  not  use  their  legs  very  flexibly 
when  they  are  being  hurt.  Now  if,  when  his 
fire  is  thus  kindled,  you  let  him  have  the  bit, 
the  slackness  of  it  makes  him  think  that  he  is 


6o 


XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 


given  his  head,  and  in  his  joy  thereat  he  will 
bound  along  with  proud  gait  and  prancing 
legs,  imitating  exactly  the  airs  that  he  puts 
on  before  other  horses.  Everybody  that  sees 
such  a  horse  cries  out  that  he  is  free,  willing, 
fit  to  ride,  high-mettled,  brilliant,  and  at  once 
beautiful  and  fiery  in  appearance. 

So  much  for  this  subject,  in  case  you  are 
an  admirer  of  such  action. 


CHAPTER  XL 


IF  you  chance  to  wish  to  own  a  horse  for 
parade,ss  a  high-stepper  and  of  showy 
action,  such  quahties  are  not,  as  a  rule,  to  be 
found  in  every  horse,  but  he  must  have,  to 
start  with,  the  natural  gifts  of  high  spirit  and 
strong  body.  Some  people  fancy  that  if  a 
horse  has  supple  legs,  it  follows  that  he  will 
be  able  to  rear  his  body  on  them ;  but  this  is 
not  the  fact.  It  is  the  horse  with  supple 
loins,  and  short  and  strong  ones  too,  that 
can  do  this.  I  do  not  mean  the  loins  at  the 
tail,  but  at  the  belly,  between  the  ribs  and 


62  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

the  haunches.  Such  a  horse  will  be  able  to 
gather  the  hind  legs  well  in  under  the  fore.^^ 
Now  when  he  has  gathered  them  well  in,  if 
you  take  him  up  with  the  bit,  he  falls  back 
on  his  hocks  and  raises  his  forehand  so  that 
his  belly  and  sheath  can  be  seen  from  the 
front.  You  must  give  him  the  bit  when  he 
does  this,  and  it  will  look  to  the  spectators 
as  if  he  were  doing  all  of  his  own  accord 
the  prettiest  feat  that  a  horse  can  do.  There 
are,  to  be  sure,  some  persons  who  teach  this 
movement  either  by  tapping  the  hocks  with 
a  rod,  or  by  directing  somebody  to  run  along 
by  the  side  and  strike  him  with  a  stick  under 
the  gaskins.  But  for  my  part,  I  think,  as 
I  have  said  all  along,  that  it  is  the  best  of 
lessons  if  the  horse  gets  a  season  of  repose 
whenever  he  has  behaved  to  his  rider's 
satisfaction. 

For  what  the  horse  does  under  compulsion, 
as  Simon  also  observes,  is  done  without 
understanding ;  and  there  is  no  beauty  in  it 
either,  any  more  than  if  one  should  whip  and 
spur  a  dancer.  There  would  be  a  great  deal 
more  ungracefulness  than  beauty  in  either  a 
horse  or  a  man  that  was  so  treated.     No,  he 


CHAPTER   XI.  63 

should  show  off  all  his  finest  and  most  bril- 
liant performances  willingly  and  at  a  mere 
sign.  If  he  goes  on  at  his  exercise  till  he  is 
covered  with  sweat,  and  then  if  you  dismount 
and  unbridle  him  the  moment  he  rears  up  in 
fine  style,  you  must  be  sure  that  he  will  come 
to  the  act  of  rearing  with  a  will.  This  is  the 
attitude  in  which  the  horses  of  gods  and 
heroes  are  always  depicted,  and  men  who 
can  handle  a  horse  gracefully  in  it  are  a 
magnificent  sight.  The  horse  rearing  thus 
is  such  a  thing  of  wonder  as  to  fix  the  eyes 
of  all  beholders,  young  or  old.  Nobody,  I 
assure  you,  either  leaves  him  or  gets  tired 
of  watching  him  as  long  as  he  presents  the 
brilliant  spectacle. 

Yet  if  it  chance  that  the  owner  of  such  a 
horse  should  command  a  troop  57  or  regiment 
of  cavalry,  he  should  not  aspire  to  be  the 
only  brilliant  figure  himself,  but  should  try 
all  the  more  to  make  the  whole  line  that 
follows  a  sight  worth  seeing.  If  he  goes 
on  ahead  at  an  extremely  slow  pace,  with 
his  horse  rearing  very  high  and  very  often, 
it  is  obvious  that  the  rest  of  the  horses 
would  have  to  follow  him  at  a  walk.     What 


64  XENOPIION   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

could  there  be  at  all  brilliant  in  such  a 
sight  as  this?  But  if  you  rouse  your  horse 
and  take  the  lead  at  a  gait  neither  too  fast 
nor  too  slow,  but  simply  suited  to  the  horses 
that  are  most  spirited,  alert,  and  graceful  in 
action,  with  such  leading  the  general  effect  is 
complete,  and  the  horses  prance  and  snort  all 
together,  so  that  not  only  you  yourself  but 
all  that  follow  after  would  be  a  sight  well 
worth  seeing.5^ 

To  conclude,  if  a  man  buys  his  horses 
skilfully,  feeds  them  so  that  they  can  bear 
fatigue,  and  handles  them  properly  in  training 
them  for  war,  in  exercising  them  for  the 
parade  and  in  actual  service  in  the  field,  what 
is  there  to  prevent  him  from  making  his 
horses  more  valuable  than  when  he  acquired 
them,  and  hence  from  owning  horses  that  are 
famous  and  from  becoming  famous  himself 
in  the  art  of  horsemanship?  Nothing  except 
the  interposition  of  some  divinity. 


CHAPTER   XII. 


I  WISH  also  to  set  down  how  the  man  who 
is  to  run  the  hazard  of  battle  on  horse- 
back should  be  armed.  To  begin  with  the 
cuirass. 59  This  must  always  be  made  to  fit 
the  body;  for  if  it  fits  well,  the  body  sup- 
ports its  weight,  but  if  it  is  very  loose,  the 
shoulders  have  to  carry  it  all  by  themselves. 
As  for  too  tight  a  cuirass,  it  is  a  strait- 
jacket  and  not  a  piece  of  armour.  Next, 
as  the  neck  is  one  of  the  vital  parts,  I  say 
that  a  covering  should  be  made  for  it  rising 
out  of  the  cuirass  itself  to  fit  the  neck.^° 
This  will  at  once  be  an  ornament ;  and  if  it 
is  made  as  it  should  be,  it  will  cover  the 
5 


66  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

rider's  face  when  he  pleases  as  far  as  the 
nose.  For  a  helmet  the  Boeotian  ^'  is  the 
best,  in  my  opinion,  since  it  most  completely 
protects  all  the  parts  that  are  above  the 
cuirass,  without  preventing  you  from  seeing. 
Let  the  cuirass  be  made  so  as  not  to  hinder 
sitting  nor  stooping.  Round  the  belly,  the 
groin,  and  thereabouts,  there  should  be 
flaps  of  such  material  and  number  as  to  pro- 
tect these  parts.  Since  the  horseman  is  dis- 
abled if  anything  happens  to  his  left  arm,  I 
consequently  recommend  the  newly  invented 
piece  of  armour  called  t/ie  arm^''  It  protects 
the  shoulder,  the  arm,  the  elbow,  and  the 
part  that  holds  the  reins,  and  it  can  be  ex- 
tended or  bent  together;  besides  it  covers 
the  gap  left  by  the  cuirass  under  the  armpit. 

The  right  arm  must  of  course  be  raised 
whenever  the  rider  wants  to  hurl  his  javelin 
or  to  strike  a  blow.  The  part  of  the  cuirass 
that  hinders  this  must  therefore  be  removed, 
and  in  its  place  flaps  put  on  at  the  joints, 
unfolding  all  together  when  the  arm  is  raised 
and  closing  when  it  is  lowered.  For  the  arm 
itself,  something  worn  like  a  greave^^  seems 
to  me  better  than  to  have  it  of  a  piece  with 


CHAPTER   XII.  ej 

the  cuirass.  The  part  of  the  arm  that  is 
bared  when  it  is  raised  ^^  must  be  protected 
near  the  cuirass  with  calfskin  or  bronze,  else 
it  will  be  left  unguarded  in  its  most  vital  part. 

Now,  as  the  rider  himself  is  in  extreme 
danger  if  anything  happens  to  his  horse,  the 
animal  also  should  be  armed  with  a  front- 
let, breastplate,  and  thigh-pieces ;  ^'^  the  last 
serve  at  the  same  time  to  cover  the  thighs 
of  the  rider.  Above  all,  the  horse's  belly 
should  be  protected,  as  being  the  most  vital 
and  the  weakest  part.  It  may  be  protected 
with  the  cloth.  This  cloth  ^^  must  also  be  of 
such  material  and  so  sewed  together  as  to 
give  the  rider  a  safe  seat  and  not  to  gall  the 
horse's  back.  For  the  rest,  this  should  be 
the  armour  for  horse  and  man ;  but  as  the 
shins  and  feet  would  of  course  project  below 
the  thigh-pieces,  they  too  may  be  armed 
with  top-boots  -7  of  the  leather  of  which  shoes 
are  made.  These  will  at  once  protect  the 
shins  and  cover  the  feet. 

This  and  the  grace  of  the  gods  is  the  defen- 
sive armour.  For  offensive,  I  recommend  the 
sabre ^^  rather  than  the  sword;  for  the  rider 
being  aloft,  a  scimitar  blow  will  be  more  in 


68  XENOPHON   ON  HORSEMANSHIP. 

place  than  the  thrust  of  a  sword.  Instead  of 
a  spear  of  scantHng,  which  is  weak  and 
clumsy  to  carry,  I  am  inclined  to  recommend 
two  javelins ^9  made  of  cornel  wood.  A  skil- 
ful person  can  throw  one  and  then  use  the 
other  in  front,  on  the  flank,  or  in  the  rear. 
They  are  also  stronger  than  the  spear  and 
handier  to  carry. 

I  recommend  hurling  the  javelin  at  the 
longest  possible  range.  This  gives  more 
time  to  recover  oneself  and  to  seize  the  other 
javelin.  I  will  set  down  in  a  few  words  the 
best  method  of  hurling  the  javelin.  Throw 
forward  the  left,  draw  back  the  right,  rise 
from  the  thighs,  and  let  it  go  with  the  point 
slightly  raised.  Then  it  will  carry  with  the 
greatest  force  and  the  longest  range,  and  it 
will  be  sure  to  hit  the  ,  mark,  provided  the 
point  is  always  aimed  at  the  mark  when  you 
let  it  go. 

This  completes  the  hints,  lessons,  and  ex- 
ercises on  which  I  was  to  write  for  the  pri- 
vate. The  knowledge  and  practice  necessary 
for  the  commander  of  cavalry  have  been  set 
forth  already  in  a  different  work. 7° 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE. 


XENOPHON'S  "  Treatise  on  Horseman- 
ship "  is  the  oldest  extant  work  on  the 
subject  in  any  language,  and  the  only  one 
which  has  come  down  to  us  in  either  Greek 
or  Latin.  That  the  author  was  well  entitled 
to  begin  it  as  he  does,  will  be  granted  by 
every  reader  of  his  masterpiece,  the  Anaba- 
sis. But  though  in  the  ill-fated  expedition 
which  that  book  describes,  he  travelled 
nearly  three  thousand  miles,  generally  on 
horseback,  yet  this  journey  occupied  only  a 
little  more  than  a  year  of  his  life ;   and  prob- 


70  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

ably  before  the  expedition,  and  certainly  after 
it,  he  saw  service  in  the  cavalry. 

We  know  very  little  of  the  life  of  Xeno- 
phon  before  the  year  401  B.  C,  in  which  he 
joined  the  army  of  Cyrus.  He  was  an  Athe- 
nian, and  from  a  very  early  age  was  the 
follower  and  friend  of  Socrates.  Whether  at 
the  time  of  the  Anabasis  he  was  forty  years 
old  or  only  a  little  over  thirty,  is  a  question 
which  not  all  the  wisdom  of  the  learned  has 
yet  been  able  to  settle.  After  the  disastrous 
failure  of  Cyrus's  enterprise,  it  was  Xenophon, 
until  then  a  mere  honorary  staff-officer,  who 
aroused  his  companions  from  their  dejection ; 
the  remainder  of  the  Anabasis  tells  the  story 
how  his  courage  and  skill  brought  them  back 
to  Greek  lands  from  among  the  Persians. 
But  his  success  was  not  appreciated  at 
Athens,  and  he  was  banished  for  serving  with 
Spartans  and  against  the  Persians,  with  whom 
the  Athenians  had  latterly  allied  themselves. 
Becoming  again  a  soldier  of  fortune,  he 
joined  the  king  of  Sparta,  Agesilaus,  and 
followed  him  against  Athens  and  Thebes  in 
the  battle  of  Coronea,  394  B.  c.  For  his  ser- 
vices  the    Spartans    presented    him   with    an 


THE    GREEK  RIDING-HORSE.  /I 

estate  at  Scillus  in  Elis,  about  387  B.  c. ;  and 
there  he  lived  for  more  than  fifteen  years, 
with  his  wife  Philesia  and  their  sons  Gryllus 
and  Diodorus.  In  this  retirement  were  pro- 
duced several  of  his  well-known  works. 
After  the  battle  of  Leuctra,  in  371,  he  was 
driven  out  of  Scillus  and  went  to  Corinth. 
Some  tell  us  that  the  Athenians  recalled  him 
from  exile,  and  that  his  last  years  were  spent 
in  his  native  city ;  others  say  that  he  died  in 
Corinth.  It  is  certain  that  his  sons,  at  least, 
were  in  the  service  of  Athens  in  the  cam- 
paign which  closed  with  Mantinea  in  362. 
Not  long  before  this  battle  he  wrote  ''  The 
General  of  Horse,"  as  we  know  from  allusions 
in  it  to  the  approaching  hostilities.  This 
book,  in  turn,  is  referred  to  in  the  treatise 
on  Horsemanship,  which  must  have  shortly 
followed  ;  and  one  likes  to  believe  that  both 
were  designed  by  the  old  soldier  to  serve  for 
the  guidance  of  his  sons.  The  labor  of  love, 
if  such  it  was,  failed  not  of  reward.  The  sons 
were  worthy  of  their  father,  and  for  their 
courage  and  manly  beauty  won  the  title  of 
the  Dioscuri,  the  ''  Great  Twin  Brethren." 
The  elder,  Gryllus,  crowned  his  life  by  falling 


72  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

gloriously,  at  Mantinea.  *'  And  there  came 
one  to  Xenophon  as  he  was  offering  sacrifice, 
and  said,  *  Gryllus  is  dead.'  And  Xenophon 
took  off  the  garland  that  was  on  his  head, 
but  ceased  not  his  sacrifice.  Then  the  mes- 
senger said,  '  His  death  was  noble.'  And 
Xenophon  returned  the  garland  to  his  head 
again ;  and  it  is  in  the  tale  that  he  shed  no 
tears,  but  said,  *  I  knew  that  I  begat  him 
mortal'  "  So  runs  the  story;  and  it  is  added 
that  Diodorus  came  safely  out  of  the  battle, 
and  lived  to  rear  a  son  of  his  brother's  name. 
Xenophon  himself  died  at  a  good  old  age,  not 
later  than  355. 

There  is  no  reason  for  doubting  the  tradi- 
tion that  Xenophon's  family  belonged  to  the 
Equestrian  *  class  in  the  state,  and  that  conse- 
quently he  served  in  the  cavalry  in  his  youth. 
He  was  old  enough  to  have  borne  a  man's 
part  in  the  last  years  of  the  Peloponnesian 
War  and  during  the  episode  of  the  Thirty 
Tyrants ;  but  history  does  not  even  mention 
his  name  in  connection  with  either.  Still,  his 
whole  bearing  during  the  retreat  of  the  Ten 
Thousand  was  far  from  being  that  of  a  mere 
*  See  p.  75- 


THE   GREEK   RIDIXG-HORSE.  73 

tiro  in  military  affairs,  and  it  is  safe  to 
assume  that  he  had  already  seen  service  in 
the  Athenian  cavalry.  Even  after  the  battle 
of  Coronea  he  still  had  opportunities  for 
keeping  up  his  acquaintance  with  horses. 
He  was  always  as  far  as  possible  from  being 
a  closet  scholar;  and  no  man  not  a  lover 
of  the  free,  vigorous  outdoor  life  of  the 
country  could  write,  as  Xenophon  does  in 
the  "  Oeconomicus,"  with  such  a  particular 
acquaintance  with  all  the  various  sides  of  a 
country  gentleman's  life.  The  preparation 
of  the  soil  for  all  its  different  products,  the 
tilling  and  sowing,  and  then  the  reaping, 
threshing,  and  winnowing  of  the  grain,  the 
planting  and  tending  of  trees  and  flowers, 
the  care  of  that  all-important  olive  which 
entered  into  so  many  of  the  relations  of 
Greek  life,  —  all  these  were  familiar  to  him, 
and  the  oversight  of  the  farm-labourers  and 
bailiffs  as  well.  Nor  did  he  neglect  field- 
sports.  Once  a  year  there  was  a  grand  hunt 
on  his  estate  to  which  all  the  country  round 
was  invited ;  and  his  treatise  on  Hunting, 
with  its  full  account  of  the  breeding  and  the 
training  of  dogs,  shows  that  the  annual  hunt 


74  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

was  by  no  means  the  only  one  in  which 
he  took  part.  Surely  these  pursuits  called 
for  horse-raising,  horse-training,  and  horse- 
riding;  and  that  he  became  a  master  in  each, 
the  treatise  on  Horsemanship  is  evidence 
enough. 

This  treatise  is  confined  to  the  horse  that 
is  to  be  ridden,  not  driven ;  and  the  remarks 
which  follow  will  therefore  be  limited  in  the 
same  way.  Riding,  as  a  habit,  seems  to  have 
come  into  practice  later  than  driving;  at 
least,  this  is  true  of  the  Greeks.  A  few 
passages  in  Homer  are  often  quoted  to 
show  that  even  in  the  Heroic  Age  men 
sometimes  used  horses  for  riding  ;  but  this 
interpretation  of  the  passages  is  a  mistake, 
and  the  whole  general  tone  of  Epic  poetry 
proves  that  driving  was  the  common  prac- 
ticed^ In  battle,  cavalry  was  utterly  un- 
known. The  heroes  fought  in  chariots,  the 
mass  of  the  army  on  foot;  and  journeys, 
even  over  mountainous  country,  were  made 
in  chariots. 

But  in  the  course  of  the  following  centuries 
there  came  about  a  change.  We  cannot 
trace  its  development ;   but  it  is  a  fact  that  in 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  75 

the  Olympic  games,  in  which  originally  the 
only  equestrian  contests  were  chariot  races, 
there  was  instituted  a  race  for  full-grown 
riding-horses  as  early  as  the  thirty-third 
Olympiad  (648  B.  C.).  In  battle  the  chariot 
had  disappeared  even  before  the  Persian 
wars,  but  its  place  was  not  filled  by  cavalry 
until  after  them.  The  Athenians  had  no 
cavalry  at  Marathon ;  and  although  we  know 
that  wealthy  citizens  kept  horses,  it  is  prob- 
able that  they  were  bred  for  racing.  Doubt- 
less it  was  acquaintance  with  the  Persian 
cavalry  that  led  to  the  organization  of  a  body 
of  horse  at  Athens.  From  the  first  and 
throughout  its  history,  it  was  a  corps  d' elite ^ 
selected  from  the  second  highest  class  of  citi- 
zens in  order  of  wealth.  The  whole  body 
consisted  of  only  a  thousand  men,  one  hun- 
dred from  each  of  the  ten  Attic  tribes ;  each 
hundred  was  commanded  by  a  phylarch, 
and  the  entire  corps  by  two  hipparchs.  It 
was  under  the  especial  oversight  of  the 
Senate;  entrance  into  it,  while  enforced 
upon  the  physically  and  pecuniarily  able, 
was  governed  by  a  strict  examination,  and 
the  horseman  was  required  to  present  him- 


']6  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

self  before  an  examining  committee,*  with  his 
charger,  and  his  equipments,  all  in  a  condition 
to  conform  to  the  law.  In  spite  of  their  care, 
however,  the  Greeks  never  accomplished  the 
revolution  in  military  art  which  gave  cavalry 
a  decisive  role  in  action.  This  was  reserved 
for  the  Macedonians.  Greek  cavalry  was 
used,  as  a  rule,  only  to  harass  a  marching 
enemy,  or  to  follow  up  and  complete  a  vic- 
tory already  won  ;  and  probably  horsemen 
seldom  went  nearer  than  within  javelin  shot 
of  a  body  of  infantry  in  line  of  battle. 

That  only  the  rich  could  serve  in  this  arm 
is  evident  from  the  facts  that  each  man  had  to 
supply  his  own  horse,  and  that  horses  were 
very  expensive  animals.  A  very  ordinary 
horse  cost  three  minae,  or  sixty-four  dollars ; 
a  fine  animal,  such  as  would  be  used  in  war 
or  for  racing,  much  more.  Thus  we  hear  of 
what  might  be  called  a  thoroughbred  as  cost- 
ing twelve  minae, 7^  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
six  dollars.  Xenophon  paid  a  little  less  than 
this  for  a  war-horse  which  he  bought  in 
Lampsacus.       Such    prices    for   fine    horses 

*  See  the  accompanying  illustration,  and  its  descrip- 
tion on  page  163. 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  ^JJ 

seem  low  to  us ;  but  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  cheapness  of  a  given  article  is  rela- 
tive to  the  cost  of  other  articles  at  the  time 
in  question.  In  Greek  antiquity,  the  neces- 
saries of  life  were  in  general  to  be  bought  for 
comparatively  less  money  than  at  the  pres- 
ent day.  A  house  cost  from  three  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty  minae  ($54  to  ^2,160), 
according  to  its  size,  situation,  and  condition ; 
perhaps  an  average  price  was  from  ten  to 
forty  minae  ($180  to  $720).  Barley  cost 
two  drachmae  the  mcdimmis  (thirty-six  cents 
for  a  bushel  and  a  half)  ;  wheat,  three 
drachmae  (fifty-four  cents).  An  ox  could  be 
had  for  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  drachmae 
(nine  to  eighteen  dollars) ;  a  sheep,  for  ten 
to  twenty  drachmae  ;  a  sucking  pig,  for  three 
drachmae;  a  lamb,  for  ten  drachmae.  For 
the  usual  garment  of  the  working  classes  the 
same  price  was  paid  as  for  a  lamb  ($1.80); 
for  a  cloak,  such  as  cavalrymen  wore,  twelve 
drachmae  ($2.16).  These  prices  are  gleaned 
by  Boeckh  *  here  and  there  throughout  the 
literature.  A  comparison  of  them  makes  it 
evident  that  a  horse  was  an  expensive  piece 

*  In  "  Die  Staatshaushaltung  der  Athener." 


78  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

of  property ;  and  indeed  horse-owning,  with 
all  that  was  too  apt  to  follow  it,  became  a 
synonym  for  extravagance. 

Horse-raising  was  a  pursuit  for  which  the 
nature  of  the  Greek  soil  was  not  well  fitted; 
the  countries  were  too  rugged  and  mountain- 
ous, the  plains  in  them  few  and  small.  Chief 
among  the  breeds  for  beauty,  courage,  and 
endurance  was  the  Thessalian.  It  was  re- 
nowned in  the  very  earliest  times,  but  then 
of  course  for  driving  and  not  for  riding.  The 
mares  of  King  Diomedes  which  ate  human 
flesh,  the  horses  of  Rhesus,  of  Achilles,  and 
of  Orestes  in  the  race  described  by  Sophocles 
in  the  "  Electra,"  —  finally,  to  come  down  from 
mythology  to  history,  Alexander's  charger, 
Bucephalas,  were  all  of  this  famous  breed. 
Others  in  high  favour  were  the  Argive, 
Acarnanian,  Arcadian,  and  Epidaurian ;  but 
nothing  is  known  of  the  differences  between 
these  breeds  or  of  the  peculiar  merits  of 
each. 

In  spite  of  the  natural  disadvantages  of  the 
soil  of  Attica,  the  Athenian  young  men  de- 
voted themselves  with  much  zeal  to  the  rais- 
ing and  training  of  horses  for  the  turf  or  for 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  79 

war;'  and  old  Strepsiades  *  was  not  the  only 
father  who  had  to  lament  that  he  was  ruined 
by  a  horse-complaint.  The  great  space  de- 
voted on  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon  to  the 
Athenian  cavalry  shows  clearly  what  a  high 
estimation  was  set  upon  the  possession  of 
beautiful  horses,  and  on  dexterity  in  the  man- 
agement of  them.  Instruction  in  riding 
began  to  form  a  special  branch  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  higher  classes,  j  and  it  was  there- 
fore natural  that  men  should  begin  to  write 
on  the  art  of  horsemanship. 

The  celebrated  rider  Simon,  of  whom  more 
hereafter,  was  the  earliest  writer  on  this  art 
whose  name  is  known  to  us.  He  was  soon 
followed  by  Xenophon.  From  the  latter's 
treatise  we  can  discover  the  point  which  the 
art  had  reached  in  the  first  half  of  the  fourth 
century  before  the  Christian  era.  We  learn 
from  it  that  the  only  gaits  of  the  horse  were 
the  walk,  the  trot,  and  the  gallop  with  both 
leads ;  that  he  was  trained  in  leaping  as  well 
as  in  the  demi-pesade,  the  volte,  and  the 
oblong  career  with  sharp  turns  at  both  ends ; 

*  In  the  comedy  of  the  "  Clouds"  by  Aristophanes, 
t  See  page  169. 


8o  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

that  the  use  of  the  jointed  bit  and  of  the  spur 
was  understood  ;  but  that  curbs,  saddles,  and 
stirrups  were  not  yet  invented.  We  get  also 
much  information  on  the  nature  of  the  ani- 
mal himself,  and  on  the  care  that  was  taken 
of  him.  I  have  found  it  more  convenient  to 
say  what  seemed  necessary  on  all  these  mat- 
ters in  the  notes  which  follow  this  e£say. 
But  Xenophon's  first  chapter  is  devoted  to 
the  physique  of  the  animal ;  and  in  it  he  sets 
forth  what,  in  his  opinion,  are  the  distinguish- 
ing marks  of  a  good  horse.  This  is  a  subject 
which  may  be  better  treated  here  than  in  the 
notes. 

In  the  matter  of  judging  the  points  of  a 
horse,  the  ancient  requirements  were  not  in 
all  respects  like  the  modern.  The  advance 
in  anatomical  knowledge  accounts  for  some 
differences;  but  it  is  also  probable,  as  Schlie- 
ben  *  observes,  that  we,  like  the  men  of  old, 
are  prejudiced  by  habit  in  favour  of  the  type 
with  which  we  are  familiar.  If  qualities 
which  they  thought  beautiful  seem  ugly  to 
us,  it  should  be  remembered  that  our  stand- 
ard does  not  always  conform  even  to  that  of 
the  last  century. 

*  In  "Die  Pferde  des  Altertums." 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  8  I 

Our  knowledge  of  the  taste  of  the  Greeks 
in  this  matter  is  drawn  from  two  sources,  — 
the  Hterary  and  the  artistic.  SchHeben,  in  his 
interesting  book  on  the  Horse  in  Antiquity, 
seems  to  think  that  the  three  principal  forms 
of  art  —  vase-paintings,  reliefs,  and  statues  in 
the  round  —  each  exhibit  peculiarities  of  treat- 
ment innate  to  the  artistic  form,  which  make 
it  impossible  to  reach,  from  a  comparison  of 
them  all,  any  distinct  conception  of  the  best 
type  of  Greek  horse.  Then  turning  to  the 
writers,  he  is  further  confused  by  finding  that 
points  of  excellence  upon  which  they  all 
agree  are  not  apparent  in  the  works  of  the 
artists.  Hence  he  assumes  different  ideals 
for  the  artists  and  the  writers.  He  even 
thinks  that  in  one  point,  at  least,  the  unani- 
mous agreement  of  the  writers  is  reversed  by 
as  cojnplete  a  contrary  agreement  in  works 
of  art.  This  point  is  the  mane.  He  makes 
the  common  errors  of  believing  that  all  the 
artists  represent  it  as  short,  and  that  all 
the  writers  say  that  it  should  be  long. 
Neither  belief  is  more  than  an  assumption, 
and  a  baseless  one  at  that,  as  will  appear 
later.  The  fact  is,  Schlieben  seems  to  expect 
6 


82  XENOPHON  ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

to  find  in  the  works  of  all  sorts  of  artists, 
good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  the  same  consen- 
sus that  really  is  to  be  found  in  the  writings 
of  the  authors.  But  the  works  of  art  have 
survived  to  us  from  different  centuries  by 
means  of  all  kinds  of  accidents,  and  they  were 
produced  for  all  kinds  of  reasons.  The  books 
have  survived,  generally,  for  the  reason  that 
they  were  fittest  for  survival.  The  authors 
lived,  none  of  them,  before  the  classical  period, 
and  each  of  them  undertook  to  describe  a 
horse  because  he  knew  the  animal  himself, 
and  had  spent  a  good  part  of  his  life  with 
horses,  or  because  he  could  copy  the  words 
of  authors  of  more  practical  experience  than 
his  own.  There  can  be  no  question  of  the 
vast  advantage  of  the  books  over  the  works 
of  art  in  deciding  such  a  matter  as  this. 

There  would  be  nothing  very  surprising, 
therefore,  in  the  want  of  agreement  in  art,  if 
such  want  there  be,  upon  a  type  of  horse 
which  we  can  take  for  the  ideal  animal.  But 
nobody  should  thence  proceed  to  argue  that 
there  was  no  such  type  already  determined 
by  judges  of  horseflesh  and  agreed  upon 
even    by  artists.     It   would    be    much    more 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  83 

likely  that  it  was  the  want  of  technical  skill 
which  prevented  the  artist  from  representing 
what  he  had  in  mind  to  represent;  then,  too, 
he  might  be  fettered  by  convention.  When 
we  look  at  a  picture  on  an  archaic  vase,  we 
are  standing  at  the  very  cradle  of  the  art  of 
painting,  —  in  order  of  time  the  last  of  the  fine 
arts  which  the  Greeks  developed.  And  we 
see  on  vases  of  the  more  cultivated  period 
many  things  which  illustrate  the  power  which 
lies  in  methods  sanctified  by  custom  —  that  is, 
in  convention  —  to  over-ride  the  real  know- 
ledge of  the  art  of  painting  and  the  greater 
perfection  of  technique  which  existed  at  the 
time  of  the  production  of  such  works.  In 
criticising  an  equestrian  statue  or  a  relief  for 
a  frieze,  one  should  always  remember  that  it 
was  intended  to  be  placed  at  a  considerable 
elevation  and  to  be  looked  at  from  below,  so 
that  exaggeration  of  certain  parts  was  often 
necessary,  —  such,  for  instance,  as  in  the 
treatment  of  the  eyes  of  the  famous  horse's 
head  by  Phidias  *  in  the  eastern  pediment  of 
the  Parthenon.  But  when  all  allowances  are 
made,  a  perfect  horse  is  as  rare  a  thing  in 
*  See  the  opposite  cut. 


84  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

Greek  art  as  he  is  in  nature.  Even  on  the 
Parthenon  frieze,  where  there  are  finer  horses 
than  in  any  other  works  of  Greek  art,  some 
animals  have  faults  which  are  apparent  to  the 
veriest  tiro.  In  fact,  if  we  should  judge 
altogether  by  what  has  survived  to  us,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  in  representing  the 
horse  in  all  the  different  forms  of  art  the 
ancients  have  been  surpassed  by  modern 
artists.  By  Phidias  we  have  only  the  heads 
that  were  in  the  pediments ;  for  the  figures 
on  the  frieze,  although  designed  by  him, 
were  certainly  not  carved  by  his  own  hand. 
But  Phidias  stood  alone,  and  far  above  con- 
temporaries and  successors.  Still,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  many  ancient  representations  of 
the  horse  have  no  claim  to  beauty  or  to  cor- 
rectness in  composition,  there  are  others 
which  will  better  bear  criticism,  some  de- 
serve high  praise,  and  we  read  of  artists 
who  won  great  fame  in  antiquity  for  the 
realism  with  which  they  depicted  the  animal. 
Apelles,  to  whom  Philip  and  Alexander  often 
sat  for  their  likenesses,  is  said  to  have  painted 
a  horse  ^3  with  such  truth  to  nature  that  a 
live  horse  neighed  at  the  picture !      Pauson 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  85 

was  commissioned  to  paint  a  horse  rolling,* 
but  he  painted  him  running  with  a  cloud  of 
dust  about  him.  The  man  who  gave  the 
order  naturally  objected,  whereupon  the 
master  turned  the  picture  upside  down,  and 
behold !  the  patron's  stipulations  were  ful- 
filled.^4  Criticism  could  discover  only  one 
defect  in  a  painting  by  Micon;  the  famous 
rider  Simon  remarked  that  he  had  never 
before  seen  a  horse  with  eyelashes  on  the 
lower  lids. 75  Such  stories,  in  spite  of  mani- 
fest exaggerations,  show  that  extant  works 
are  not  a  fair  criterion  of  the  skill  of  the  great 
painters.  Not  a  single  work  remains  that  can 
be  traced  to  any  of  them ;  but  doubtless  to 
their  art,  in  comparison  with  what  survives, 
might  have  been  applied  lines  like  Donne's, 
written  of  a  contemporary  of  his  own,  — 

"  A  hand  or  eye 
By  Hilyarcle  drawne,  is  worth  an  history 
By  a  worse  painter  made." 

In  sculpture,  both  in  the  round  and  in 
relief,  and  in  reliefs  on  coins,  the  extant 
works  are  far  more  satisfactory ;   for  they  rep- 

*  See  p.  131. 


S6  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

resent  branches  of  art  which  had  reached 
near  to  perfection  before  the  Greeks  really 
began  to  develop  painting.  But  here  again, 
as  I  have  said,  we  lack  complete  examples  of 
works  illustrating  the  horse  by  the  greatest 
masters,  except  perhaps  by  the  best  design- 
ers for  the  coinage.  On  the  whole,  it  seems 
impossible,  from  a  comparison  of  the  works 
of  art  alone,  to  determine  what  shape  of 
horse  was  generally  approved  by  the  Greek 
connoisseur.  It  remains  to  inquire  whether 
the  literature  helps  us  in  this  direction. 

The  oldest  known  description  in  Greek  of 
a  good  horse  was  contained  in  Simon's  trea- 
tise on  Horsemanship,  of  which  we  have  only 
fragments.  One,  however,  is  of  considerable 
length,  and  this  happens  to  contain  his  advice 
on  the  choice  of  a  horse.  Then  comes 
Xenophon ;  but  after  him  we  find  nothing 
professing  exactness  until  the  Roman  period. 
Varro,  writing  in  37  B.  C,  and  Vergil,  who 
published  his  **  Georgics "  a  little  later,  are 
the  only  others  before  the  Christian  era. 
Then  come  in  the  first  century  Calpurnius 
and  Columella,  in  the  third  Oppian  and 
Nemesian,  and   in  the  fourth  Apsyrtus,  Pela- 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  8/ 

gonius,  and  Palladius.''^  There  are  of  course 
countless  allusions  to  the  points  of  the  horse 
in  numerous  other  authors,  but  I  have  here 
named  all  the  extant  writers  who  have  de- 
scribed with  any  exactness  and  completeness 
the  best  type  of  the  animal ;  and  in  another 
part  of  this  book  (p.  107)  will  be  found 
translations  which  I  have  made  from  them 
all. 

These  writers  are  scattered  through  a  period 
of  nearly  eight  hundred  years,  but  it  is  evi- 
dent that  they  all  had  in  mind  an  animal  of 
the  same  general  stamp.  Schlieben  writes  as 
though  the  descriptions  given  by  the  several 
writers  really  differed  in  essential  particulars ; 
but  this  is  very  far  from  being  the  case,  and 
his  study  of  the  passages  cannot  have  been 
exact.  Xenophon's  description  is  by  all  odds 
the  most  complete;  in  his  first  chapter  he 
touches  upon  over  thirty  points,  many  more 
than  are  mentioned  by  any  other  writer.  A 
careful  examination  of  them  all  shows  that 
there  are  only  five  points  mentioned  by 
others  but  omitted  by  him ;  namely,  shoulder- 
blades  (large,  Simon  and  Apsyrtus;  broad, 
Varro;     strong,    Nemesian) ;     teeth    (small. 


88  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

Simon)  ;  gaskins  (not  fleshy,  Simon)  ;  veins 
(visible  all  over  the  body,  Varro)  ;  coronet, 
(moderate,  Pelagonius).  On  the  other  hand, 
the  other  writers  never  disagree  with  Xeno- 
phon  in  the  points  which  they  do  mention. 
The  only  approach  to  such  disagreement 
is  the  long  barrel  apparently  required  by 
both  Simon  and  by  Palladius ;  but  Xeno- 
phon  was  speaking  only  of  riding-horses, 
while  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  these 
writers  had  not  also  in  mind  horses  for  driv- 
ing. It  is  true  that  we  find  some  additions 
to  Xenophon's  descriptions  of  certain  points; 
but  these  are  only  additions  and  not  contra- 
dictions, and  he  would  doubtless  have  agreed 
with  most  of  them.  Such,  for  instance,  are 
the  muscles  bulging  out  all  over  the  chest 
(Vergil,  Columella,  Apsyrtus,  Palladius),  the 
jaw  brought  close  to  the  neck  (Simon, 
Oppian),  the  straight  cannons  (Columella, 
Oppian).  It  appears,  then,  that  there  is  a 
very  close  agreement  among  the  different 
writers;  further,  the  resemblance  in  their 
language  and  the  order  in  which  they  take 
up  the  various  points  show  that  they  were 
frequently  copying  from  one  another  or  from 


„ Ji:  ::L^.-„:r  M^  iEJ 


THE    GREEK    RIDING-HORSE.  89 

a  common  source  now  lost  to  us.*  There  can 
be  little  doubt,  therefore,  that  even  before 
Xenophon's  time  an  ideal  or  normal  type 
had  been  established  which  was  to  find 
acceptance  throughout  the  whole  period  of 
Greek  and  Roman  antiquity. 

Now,  when  we  compare  Xenophon's  de- 
scription of  a  good  horse  with  the  best 
horses  on  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon,  we  find 
a  remarkable  similarity.  In  fact,  as  "  Stone- 
henge  " -f  remarks,  "  here  we  have  described 
a  cobby  but  spirited  and  corky  horse,  with  a 
light  and  somewhat  peculiar  carriage  of  the 
head  and  neck,  just  as  we  see  represented  on 
the  Elgin  marbles."  It  has  been  thought  by 
some  that  Xenophon  based  his  description 
upon  these  very  reliefs,  and  it  is  of  course 
possible  that  they  may  have  served  as  a  sort 
of  guide  to  his  words.  But  from  earlier 
works    still,    in    vase-paintings    of  extremely 

*  A  lost  work  by  the  elder  Pliny  contained  a  de- 
scription of  the  normal  horse,  generally  accepted  by 
his  contemporaries.  See  his  Natural  History,  viii, 
162. 

t  In  his  book  on  the  Horse,  near  the  beginning  of 
which  he  gives  the  most  exact  translation  of  Xeno- 
phon's description  which  I  have  ever  seen. 


90  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

rude  workmanship,  presenting  pictures  which 
to  the  PhiHstine  are  nothing  but  ridiculous 
caricatures,  —  even  in  these  early  productions 
and  still  more  frequently  on  the  later  vases, 
there  are  traces  which  show  that  it  was  the 
artist's  hand  that  was  at  fault,  or  that  he  was 
governed  by  convention,  and  that  there  was 
present  before  his  mind  something  very  like 
the  conception  which  the  assistants  of  Phidias 
were  enabled  to  work  out,  —  some  of  them, 
it  is  true,  without  the  full  measure  of  success, 
others  almost  to  perfection.  It  was,  I  believe, 
not  the  want  of  a  type,  but  of  the  genius  to 
give  expression  to  the  type,  or  again  it  was 
the  power  of  convention,  that  prevented  those 
artists  whose  works  have  survived  from 
enabling  us  to  settle  from  their  productions 
the  question  which  has  engaged  us.  The 
type  of  horse  portrayed  on  the  frieze  was  a 
very  old  one,  even  in  the  fifth  century;  the 
minute  description  of  the  points  given  by 
Xenophon  and  confirmed  by  other  writers, 
helps  us  to  detect  the  faults  which  a  Greek 
horseman  would  have  seen  in  some  of  the 
figures  on  the  frieze.  To  obtain,  therefore, 
a  correct  conception  of  the  Greek  idea  of  a 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  9 1 

good  horse,  one  should  compare  the  first 
chapter  of  Xenophon's  treatise  with  the  best 
animals  on  the  Parthenon.  Some  assistance 
may  be  had  from  the  brief  summary  of  the 
defects  of  a  horse  as  given  by  Pollux*  (1,191). 
These  are  as  follows :  — 

**  Horn  thin,  hoofs  full,  fat,  soft,  flat,  or,  as 
Xenophon  calls  them,  low-lying.  Heavy 
fetlocks,  varicose  veins  in  the  shanks,  flabby' 
thighs,  hollow  shoulder-blades,  projecting 
neck,  mane  bald,  narrow  chest,  head  fat  and 
heavy,  large  ears,  nostrils  converging,  sunken 
eyes,  thin  meagre  sides,  sharp  backbone, 
rough  haunches,  thin  buttocks,  stiff  legs, 
knees  hard  to  bend." 

There  is  one  point,  however,  which  seems 
to  call  for  special  notice,  and  that  is  the 
mane.  As  I  have  already  said,  Schlieben 
has  fallen  into  the  common  error  of  believing 
that  the  writers  require  the  mane  to  be  long, 
but  that  in  works  of  art  it  is  nearly  always 
cut  short.  But  a  careful  reading  of  the 
authors  will  show  that  the  word  "  long "  is 
never  applied  to  the  mane  by  any  of  them. 
The  adjectives  are  "thick,"  ''full,"  "  fine- 
*  See  note  76. 


92  XENOPHON   ON  HORSEMANSHIP. 

haired,",  "  crinkly,"  and  it  is  said  to  fold  over 
to  the  right.  All  these  expressions  might  be 
applied  to  a  short,  and  the  first  even  to  a 
hogged,  mane.  Xenophon  comes  nearest  to 
calling  the  mane  long  when  he  uses  the 
phrase  eco?  av  Ko/jucoatv,  which  I  have  ren- 
dered ''while  it  is  flowing"  (chap,  v,  p.  32). 
But  the  context  shows  that  it  is  there  a 
question  of  mane  or  no  mane,  not  of  short  or 
long.  And  there  is  nothing  in  the  chapter 
to  show  that  Xenophon  disapproved  of  keep- 
ing the  mane  down  by  trimming;  there  must 
be  plenty  to  take  hold  of  in  mounting,  he 
says,  and  enough  for  beauty.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  evident  that  he  would  have  had  no 
hogging  of  the  mane,  and  none  of  the  other 
writers  mention  such  a  thing.  But  Xenophon's 
very  insistence  on  the  beauty  of  a  flowing 
mane  seems  to  me  to  show  that  not  all  the 
world  agreed  with  him ;  he  is  as  earnest 
about  it  as  if  he  were  a  member  of  the 
Humane  Society  preaching  against  docking. 
It  is  not  surprising  to  me,  therefore,  to  find 
in  works  of  art  the  portrayal  of  a  difl"erent 
fashion.  Probably  most  people,  if  asked  to 
describe  the  mane  of  the  Greek  horse,  would 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  93 

say  that  it  was  hogged ;  at  least,  that  is  the 
answer  which  I  have  almost  invariably  re- 
ceived on  putting  the  question.  There  can 
be,  I  think,  no  doubt  that  the  hogged  mane 
was  a  fashion  which  existed  in  Greek  anti- 
quity, silent  about  it  though  the  writers  may 
be;  the  difficulty  is  to  discover  whether  it 
always  existed  side  by  side  with  the  flowing 
mane,  or  whether  it  went  out  of  fashion  after 
a  certain  period.  Still  harder  would  it  be  to 
determine  whether  hogging  was  practised 
only  upon  horses  of  a  certain  breed  or  size, 
as  it  generally  is  with  us,  or  upon  horses  in- 
tended only  for  special  purposes.  Into  these 
questions  I  have  not  entered,  but  I  believe 
light  might  be  cast  upon  them  by  a  careful 
study  and  comparison  of  works  of  art.77  A 
mere  glance  through  such  a  well-known  book 
as  Baumeister's  "  Denkmaler  des  Klassischen 
Altertums  "  shows  a  number  of  examples  of 
hogged  manes.  Omitting  for  the  moment 
the  Parthenon  marbles,  striking  instances  will 
be  found  as  follows :  the  Oropus  relief,  p.  69  ; 
Phigalia  frieze,  plate  xliv;  very  ancient 
terra  cotta  from  Melos,  p.  1290;  Dipylon 
vase,  p.  1943;   Mycene  vase,  p.  1941  ;   black- 


94  XENOPHON   ON    HORSEMANSHIP. 

figured  vase,  p.  2081.  But  it  would  be  a 
great  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  hogged 
mane  is  the  only  fashion  in  art.  In  the  same 
book  examples  of  long  straight  or  long  curly 
manes  are  found  as  follows :  black-figured 
vases,  pp.  6^,  725  ;  Corinthian  vase,  p.  1962  ;  * 
altar  of  Pergamon,  p.  1257;  Vienna  cameo, 
p.  1390;  Frangois  vase,  plate  Ixxiv ;  Trajan's 
column,  p.  2057.  Short  and  curly  manes  are 
to  be  seen ;  for  instance,  on  a  late  vase,  p.  728, 
and  a  Pompeian  wall-painting,  p.  66^,  It  is 
a  dangerous  thing  to  offer  an  opinion  on  such 
a  point  without  much  more  exhaustive  re- 
search than  I  have  made ;  but  I  have  been  led 
to  believe,  from  these  and  many  pictures  in 
other  books,  that  the  hogged  mane  was  an 
old  fashion,  which  in  the  time  of  Xenophon 
was  passing  away.^^  Although  I  admit  that 
much  is  to  be  said  on  the  other  side,  yet  I 
am  strengthened  in  this  belief  by  observing 
that  out  of  nearly  a  hundred  horses  on  the 
Parthenon  friezes  only  about  thirty  have 
hogged  manes,  and  that  frequently  these 
thirty  have  an  unfinished  look  in  other 
points,  so  that  many  of  them,  as  works  of 
*  I  give  an  illustration  o£  this  vase  on  page  22. 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  95 

art,  are  of  inferior  quality.  It  should  be  said, 
however,  that  the  manes  of  the  pediment 
horses  are  all  hogged. 

In  size,  it  is  clear  that  the  ancient  Greek 
horse  was  smaller  and  not  so  tall  as  ours. 
His  descendants  in  their  own  country  still 
retain  this  characteristic  feature.  We  might 
infer  from  the  whole  tone  of  the  descriptions 
by  the  writers,  that  they  were  speaking  of  a 
small  and  compactly  built  animal,  although 
we  find  no  exact  statements  of  size  or  height. 
But  there  is  one  passage  at  the  beginning  of 
Xenophon's  seventh  chapter  which  is  very 
significant.  It  appears  that  an  approved 
method  in  mounting  was  to  **  lay  hold  of  the 
mane  aboict  the  cars.''  We  should  need  no 
further  evidence  than  this  to  prove  that 
Athenian  cavalry  horses  were  much  less  high 
than  the  ordinary  saddle-horse  is  now;  but  it 
is  supported  by  the  illustrations  in  art,  and 
especially  by  the  reliefs  of  cavalry  horses  on 
the  Parthenon.  But  just  here  let  me  say  that 
I  believe  that  most  people  fancy  the  Greek 
horse  a  great  deal  smaller  than  he  really  was. 
This  is  because  they  judge  him  from  the 
Parthenon    frieze    and    other    compositions, 


96  XENOPHON   ON    HORSEMANSHIP. 

such  as  vase-paintings,  in  which  he  appears 
side  by  side  with  men  standing  on  the  ground. 
The  unthinking  observer,  comparing  the 
height  of  the  horses  with  the  height  of  the 
men  in  the  same  composition,  and  finding 
that  the  men  are  usually  as  tall  or  even 
taller  than  the  horses,  concludes  that  the 
Greek  horse  must  have  been  a  very  small 
animal  indeed.  But  such  a  conclusion  is 
made  in  ignorance  or  in  neglect  of  an  impor- 
tant principle  of  Greek  art.  By  this  it  was 
required  that  in  a  composition  of  numerous 
figures  the  heads  of  all  should  be  nearly 
upon  a  level,  whether  the  men  were  walking, 
riding,  or  driving.  This  principle,  called 
Isokelismos,  does  not  in  practice  offend  the 
eye,  which,  recognizing  the  effect  of  the 
whole  as  a  work  of  art,  is  not  troubled  by 
the  exactness  of  levels,  untruthful  to  nature 
though  it  may  be.  But  of  course  it  utterly 
forbids  us  to  use  the  apparent  height  of  the 
men  in  such  a  composition  as  any  standard 
for  the  real  height  of  animals.  A  better 
means  of  judging  from  the  frieze  is  by  ob- 
serving how  far  the  feet  of  the  riders  hang 
down  below  the  bellies  of  their  horses.     The 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  97 

distance  appears  to  be  much  greater  than  in 
the  case  of  men  on  horseback  to-day.  It 
should  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
cella  frieze  was  placed  more  than  thirty-five 
feet  above  the  floor  of  the  temple,  and  that 
the  outer  row  of  columns  prevented  the  spec- 
tator from  standing  at  a  distance  to  examine 
the  frieze.  He  had  to  look  almost  straight 
up.  In  the  British  Museum,  as  well  as  in 
others,  the  slabs  or  casts  of  them  are  placed 
much  lower.  But  in  their  original  position, 
the  perspective  would  prevent  the  feet  of 
the  men  from  seeming  to  dangle  so  far  be- 
low the  bellies  of  their  horses.*  The  dif- 
erence,  however,  would  be  slight,  and  the 
whole  build  of  the  horse  in  these  as  well  as 
in  other  works  of  art,  stamps  him  as  a  small 
animal.  Of  course  the  size  and  height  of 
horses  varied  then  just  as  now.     The  differ- 

*  Since  I  wrote  the  above,  my  friend  Dr.  Hayley 
informs  me  that  he  heard  Professor  Kekuld  make  the 
same  remark  in  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  frieze. 
Professor  Kekule  also  observed  that  the  sculptors  of 
this  frieze  had  anticipated  some  of  the  discoveries 
made  by  instantaneous  photography  in  the  positions 
of  the  horse  in  motion. 


98  XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

ent  breeds  may  have  had  their  distinctions 
in  this  respect;  but,  as  I  have  said,  we  know 
nothing  of  them.  It  may  be  significant,  how- 
ever, that  on  Thessahan  and  Macedonian 
coins  the  riding-horses  often  appear  equal 
in  size  to  our  own.  Little,  if  anything,  can 
be  inferred  from  the  almost  giraffe-like  pro- 
portions of  the  animal  on  the  most  archaic 
vases. 

From  the  physique  of  the  horse  I  pass  to 
his  nature.  In  reading  Xenophon's  treatise 
one  may  be  struck  by  the  frequency  with 
which  this  man,  well  used  to  riding  as  he 
was,  refers  to  the  horse  as  a  dangerous  ani- 
mal to  come  near.  While  it  should  be 
remembered  that  the  Greeks  generally  used 
entire  horses,  not  geldings,  for  all  purposes 
and  especially  for  war,  yet  this  will  not  wholly 
account  for  Xenophon's  constant  tone  of  cau- 
tion ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  process  of 
domestication,  extending  through  centuries, 
has  made  a  very  great  difference  in  the  tem- 
perament of  the  animal,  as  we  know  it,  from 
what  it  was  in  the  classical  period.  Ancient 
literature  is  not  without  its  stories  ^9  of  the 
devotion  of  the  horse  to  his  master;  but  even 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  99 

in  these  the  wildness  or  the  savageness  of 
the  animal  is  generally  brought  out,  showing 
itself  often  in  a  bloody  revenge  taken  by  the 
steed  upon  the  warrior  who  has  killed  his 
rider,  or  in  absolute  refusal  on  the  part  of 
the  horse  to  be  mounted  by  any  save  his 
accustomed  rider.  There  is,  in  fact,  nothing 
to  show  that  the  Greek  ever  made  a  friend 
of  his  horse,  least  of  all  that  there  was  ever 
between  them  that  beautiful  relation  which 
is  so  common  between  horse  and  man  in 
Arabian  tales.  Even  the  poets,  from  Homer 
down,  did  not  appreciate  what  might  be 
made  of  it.  Witness  the  answer  of  Achilles 
to  his  horse  Xanthus  when  the  noble  animal 
did  his  best  to  warn  his  master:  **  Xanthus, 
why  prophesiest  thou  my  death?  Nowise 
behooveth  it  thee;"  and  he  puts  him  off 
with  scarcely  less  harshness  than  that  of 
Balaam  to  his  ass.^°  Xenophon  probably 
comes  as  near  to  loving  the  horse  as  any 
Greek  ever  did,  and  no  modern  humanitarian 
was  ever  more  earnest  in  urging  over  and 
over  again  the  principle  of  treating  horses 
with  kindness.  His  precept,  ''Never  deal 
with  the  horse  when  you  are  in  a  passion," 


lOO       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

is  a  whole  treatise  in  itself.  But  he  has 
not  a  single  word  of  love  for  the  horse  any- 
where, and  does  not  even  suggest  that  the 
rider  should  try  to  win  his  horse's  affection 
for  its  own  sake.  All  his  teaching  is  practi- 
cal :  be  kind  to  your  horse  and  he  will  do 
as  you  desire.  The  explanation  of  all  this 
may  be  that  to  the  Greeks  the  horse  sug- 
gested war,  with  all  the  merciless  qualities 
which  characterized  it  in  antiquity.  They 
kept  no  riding-horses  in  our  sense  of  the 
word,  and  we  never  read  of  a  Greek  as  taking 
a  ride  for  pleasure.  Their  horses  were  bred 
and  reared  primarily  to  be  machines  of  battle, 
or  for  the  scarcely  less  fiercely  contested 
struggles  in  the  hippodrome.  They  had  but 
a  slight  place  in  the  every-day  life  of  men ; 
to  be  sure,  they  were  sometimes  used  on 
journeys,  especially  over  mountains  ;  but  even 
ambassadors  generally  travelled  on  foot,  and 
carriages  were  usually  drawn  by  mules.  The 
pomps  and  processions  on  festive  days  were 
so  contrived  as  to  be  part  of  the  horse's 
training  for  war.  His  real  business  lay 
among  warriors ;  for  he  was  like  the  horse 
in  Job  that  ''  saith  among  the  trumpets.  Ha, 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  lOI 

ha;   and  he  smelleth  the  battle  afar  off,  the 
thunder  of  the  captains  and  the  shouting."  * 

It  may  be  appropriate,  then,  to  finish  this 
sketch  by  setting  down  what  is  known  of 
the  famous  charger  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
The  names  and  characteristics  of  many 
horses  of  gods  or  heroes  have  been  trans- 
mitted to  us ;  but  Bucephalas  is  the  only 
horse  belonging  to  a  mortal  about  which 
the  Greeks  have  left  any  particular  descrip- 
tion.^' He  was  of  the  best  ThessaHan  breed, 
black,  with  a  white  star,  and  very  large.  As 
Gellius  says,  '*  Et  capite  et  nomine  Buceph- 
alas fuit."  The  fact  is  that,  long  before  this 
famous  animal,  a  well-known  type  of  Thes- 
saHan horses  had  given  rise  to  the  name, 
which  means  "  Bull-head."  ^^  This  type  had 
small  ears  set  well  apart,  thus  leaving  the  brow 
wide  and  the  poll  large.  '*  Some  people," 
says  an  unknown  writer  in  the  '*  Geoponics," 
"  reckon  among  the  finest  horses  those  with 
eyes  which  are  not  a  match ;   such,  they  say, 

*  Cf.  Vergil,  Georgics,  III,  83:  — 

Turn  siqua  sonum  procul  arma  dedere, 
Stare  loco  nescit,  micat  auribus  et  tremit  artus, 
Collectumque  premens  volvit  sub  naribus  ignem. 


102        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

was  Bucephalas."  If  this  story  is  true,  he 
had  what  is  sometimes  called  a  "  China  eye." 
King  Philip  bought  him  from  one  Philoneicus, 
a  Thessalian,  —  for  thirteen  talents,  as  Plu- 
tarch says;  for  sixteen,  according  to  Pliny 
(from  thirteen  to  eighteen  thousand  dollars). 
Either  price  is  probably  an  absurd  exagger- 
ation, the  result  of  the  later  reputation  of  the 
animal.  Evidently  the  king  was  not  a  believer 
in  Xenophon's  principle  of  giving  a  horse  a 
thorough  trial  before  buying  him ;  for,  says 
Plutarch,  when  they  brought  the  king's  new 
purchase  into  the  place  where  they  were  to 
try  him,  it  appeared  that  he  was  a  fierce  and 
unmanageable  beast.  '*  He  would  neither 
allow  anybody  to  mount  him,  nor  obey  any 
of  Philip's  attendants,  but  reared  and  plunged 
against  them  all,  so  that  the  king  in  a  rage 
bade  them  take  him  away  for  an  utterly  wild 
and  unbroken  brute.  But  Alexander,  who 
was  by,  cried  out,  '  What  a  fine  horse  that 
is  which  they  are  spoiling  !  The  clumsy  cow- 
ards, they  can't  handle  him.'  Philip  said 
nothing  to  this  at  first;  but  when  his  son 
kept  on  grumbling,  and  seemed  to  be  in  a 
great  taking,  he  said  at  last,  'Are  you  find- 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  IO3 

ing  fault  with  your  elders  because  you  know 
any  more  yourself,  or  can  handle  a  horse 
any  better  than  they?'  'I  could  handle 
that  horse,  at  any  rate,  a  great  deal  better 
than  anybody  else,'  was  the  answer.  'And 
what  will  you  forfeit  for  your  rashness  if  you 
fail?'  'The  price  of  the  horse,  by  Zeus!' 
There  was  a  burst  of  laughter,  and  it  was  so 
agreed.  In  a  moment  Alexander  ran  up  to 
the  horse,  seized  the  reins,  and  turned  him 
to  face  the  sun;  for  it  seems  that  he  had 
observed  that  what  frightened  the  creature 
was  the  sight  of  his  own  shadow  playing  to 
and  fro  on  the  ground  before  him.  After  a 
little  patting  and  coaxing,  seeing  him  full  of 
courage  and  spirit,  Alexander  quietly  slipped 
off  his  cloak,  and  springing  up  bestrode  him 
unharmed.  Feeling  the  bit  gently  with  the 
reins,  he  restrained  him,  without  whipping^ 
or  hurting  him,  until  he  saw  that  the  horse 
had  given  up  all  threatening  behavior,  and 
was  only  hot  for  the  course;  then  he  let 
him  go,  and  urged  him  on  by  raising  his 
voice  and  using  his  heel.  The  attendants 
of  Philip  were  anxious  and  silent  at  first ;  but 
when  he  turned  and  came  back  full  of  just 


104       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

pride  and  pleasure,  they  all  raised  a  cheer, 
except  his  father.  But  he,  they  say,  wept 
for  joy ;  and  after  Alexander  had  dismounted, 
said,  '  You  must  go  look  for  a  kingdom  to 
match  you,  my  son ;  Macedonia  is  not  large 
enough  for  you.'  " 

Alexander  was  only  a  boy  of  twelve  when 
this  happened ;  for  it  was  before  Aristotle 
became  his  tutor,  —  an  event  which  took 
place  when  the  prince  was  thirteen.  Bu- 
cephalas,  however,  was  no  young  colt,  but 
fourteen  years  old  even  then.  Ever  after, 
though  he  would  allow  the  groom  to  ride 
him  bareback,  yet  when  his  trappings  were 
on  he  suffered  none  save  Alexander  to  mount 
him ;  others  who  tried  it  met  with  the  same 
savage  behavior  which  he  had  shown  at  his 
first  trial,  and  were  forced  to  take  to  their 
own  heels  to  save  themselves  from  his.  But 
he  bent  his  knees  when  Alexander  appeared, 
so  as  to  make  mounting  easy,  without  wait- 
ing for  the  word  of  command.  For  the  rest 
of  his  life  he  was  Alexander's  favorite  charger, 
and  went  with  the  great  king  on  his  expedi- 
tion to  the  East.  In  Hyrcania  he  was  stolen, 
but  was  returned  in  a  hurry  on  proclamation 


THE   GREEK   RIDING-HORSE.  105 

that  unless  he  was  brought  back  the  whole 
nation  —  men,  women,  and  children  —  should 
be  cut  off.  ''Thus,"  remarks  Arrian,  "he 
was  as  dear  to  Alexander  as  Alexander  was 
terrible  to  the  barbarians."  He  carried  the 
king  in  all  his  great  victories,  and  finally 
died  at  the  age  of  thirty  *  from  wounds  re- 
ceived in  the  battle  against  the  Indian  king 
Porus  in  327  B.  c.  Alexander,  says  Gellius, 
had  pressed  recklessly  forward  into  the  very 
ranks  of  the  enemy,  and  was  the  mark  for 
every  spear.  More  than  one  was  buried  in 
the  neck  and  flanks  of  the  horse;  but  though 
at  the  point  of  death,  and  almost  drained  of 
blood,  he  turned,  carried  the  king  with  a 
bold  dash  from  the  very  midst  of  the  foe, 
and  then  and  there  fell  down,  breathing  his 
last  tranquilly  now  that  his  master  was 
safe,  and  as  comforted  by  it  as  if  he  had 
had  the  feelings  of  a  human  being.  No 
wonder  that  Alexander  founded  the  city 
of  Bucephalia  in  his  honor,  and  grieved 
for  him  as  if  he  had  lost  a  friend ;  no 
wonder  that  of  this  horse  only  in  all  Greek 

*  The  usual  extreme  limit,  according  to  Aristotle, 
of  a  horse's  years.     See  page  127. 


I06       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

literature   is  it  written   that  he   was   dear  to 
his  master. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  the  fine  bronze 
found  at  Herculaneum*  is  a  reduced  copy  of 
the  figures  of  Alexander  and  Bucephalas 
from  the  famous  group  which  was  made  by 
Lysippus,  at  Alexander's  own  order,  to 
represent  a  scene  at  the  battle  of  Granicus. 
Of  another  likeness  of  Bucephalas  we  have 
only  a  well-known  anecdote.  Alexander 
once  went  to  see  his  own  portrait  with  that 
of  his  horse,  painted  by  Apelles.  The  king 
did  not  praise  the  picture  as  it  deserved. 
But  his  horse,  on  being  brought  up,  neighed 
at  the  horse  in  the  picture  as  if  it  were  a 
real  animal;  whereupon,  "Your  Majesty," 
said  Apelles,  ''your  horse  seems  to  be  a 
good  deal  better  judge  of  painting  than 
you    are." 

*  See  cut  on  page  69. 


POINTS    OF   THE    HORSE. 

THE  following  are  the  descriptions  of  a 
good  horse,  according  to  the  ten  Greek 
and  Roman  writers  referred  to  on  page  86. 

SIMON. 

On  Simon  and  his  work,  see  page  119.  I  have 
translated  from  the  text  of  Blass,  "  Liber  Miscellaneus 
editus     a    Societate     Philolomca     Bonnensi,"     1863, 


I08       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

p.  49  ff.  The  fragment  here  translated  is  all  that 
remains  of  Simon's  book  on  the  horse,  except  a  few 
quotations  from  it  in  Pollux. 

If  one  desires  to  know  this  subject  well, 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  shape  of  the  horse 
is  the  first  thing.  To  begin  with  the  country 
of  birth,  you  must  know  that,  so  far  as  Greece 
is  concerned,  Thessaly  is  the  best.  As  to 
size  there  are  three  accepted  terms,  —  large, 
small,  and  good-sized,  or,  if  you  like,  moder- 
ate ;  and  it  is  obvious  which  size  each  of  the 
terms  will  fit.  But  moderate  size  is  best  in 
every  animal.  I  cannot  tell  a  good  horse 
from  his  colour;  however,  it  seems  to  me 
that  a  mane  which  is  of  the  same  colour 
throughout  and  of  fine  hair  is  generally  the 
best,  and  besides  it  is  most  unlike  that  of 
the  ass  and  the  mule.  A  point  second  to 
none  in  consideration  is  that  the  horse  must 
be  short  above  and  long  below,  so  that  the 
distance  shall  be  short  from  the  withers  to 
the  haunches,  but  as  long  as  possible  from 
the  hind  legs  to  the  fore ;  next,  that  he  must 
be  sound-footed.  A  good  hoof  for  a  horse 
is  the  light  and  handy  sort,  neither  broad 
nor   too    high,    and    having    little   flesh   but 


POINTS    OF  THE   HORSE.  109 

thick  horn.  The  sound  is  also  a  sign  of 
the  good  hoof;  for  the  hollow  sort  has 
more  of  the  cymbal  ring  than  the  full  and 
fleshy.  Let  him  have  supple  pasterns  and  no 
stiffness  of  the  fetlock  joints ;  his  shanks 
should  be  shaggy,  with  the  parts  about  the 
back  sinew  and  the  shank  sinewy  and  with 
as  little  flesh  as  possible  up  to  the  knee. 
Above,  however,  the  leg  should  be  fleshier 
and  stouter.  Let  the  space  between  the 
two  legs  be  as  wide  as  possible,  for  then 
he  can  throw  out  his  legs  without  inter- 
fering. His  chest  should  be  neither  too 
narrow  nor  too  broad,  and  his  shoulder- 
blade  very  large  and  very  broad  indeed. 
Let  the  neck  be  slender  near  the  jaw,  supple, 
flattened  back  to  the  rear,  but  bending  down 
to  the  front  from  the  slenderest  part.  The 
head  should  be  advanced,  and  the  neck  not 
short.  Let  him  have  a  high  poll,  and  a 
head  flat-nosed  but  light ;  the  nostrils  should 
be  very  large,  the  jaws  slender  and  a  match 
for  each  other,  the  eyes  large,  very  promi- 
nent and  bright,  the  ears  and  teeth  small,  the 
jaw  as  small  as  possible,  and  the  part  between 
the   neck   and    the  jaw  very   slender.      The 


no       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

withers  and  seat  should  be  very  large,  the 
sides  very  broad  and  deep,  and  the  loin 
supple  (you  can  tell  that  the  loin  is  sup- 
ple if  he  does  not  stand  on  both  his  hind 
legs  at  the  same  time,  but  is  constantly 
changing  from  one  to  the  other),  the  haunch 
very  large  and  broad,  the  flank  very  small. 
The  gaskins  should  not  be  very  fleshy;  and 
he  should  have  small  stones.  Between  the 
hams  he  should  not  be  prominent  nor  full, 
but  only  rather  swelling  a  little,  and  the 
breech  should  be  very  small  and  well  out  of 
sight.  Let  him  hold  his  tail  high,  and  have 
it  thick  at  the  base  and  long.  This  for  the 
shape  of  the  horse.  He  is  by  far  the  best  that 
has  all  these  points  ;  and  second  is  he  that  has 
the  majority  of  them,  including  those  which 
are  of  the  most  service.  The  colt  begins  to 
be  driven  two  years  after  birth.  About  this 
time  he  sheds  his  first  teeth,  when  he  is 
thirty  months  old ;  the  second  a  year  after, 
the  last  in  another  year  or  in  less  time ;  and 
he  is  at  his  prime  for  swiftness  and  courage 
at  six  years  old. 


POINTS    OF  THE   HORSE.  Ill 

VARRO. 

This  extract  is  taken  from  the  "  Res  Rusticae," 
2,  7,  5.  The  book  was  written  in  37  b.  c,  when  the 
author  was  eighty  years  of  age.  The  translation  is 
made  from  the  Latin  text  of  Keil. 

What  the  horse  is  to  be  like  can  be  guessed 
from  the  colt,  if  it  has  a  small  head  with  well- 
marked  parts,  black  eyes,  nostrils  not  narrow, 
ears  close  to  the  head ;  mane  thick,  dark, 
rather  crinkly,  and  of  fine  hair,  folding  over 
to  the  right  side  of  the  neck ;  broad,  full 
chest;  large  withers,  moderate-sized  belly, 
flanks  drawn  in  as  you  go  down,  broad 
shoulder-blades,  tail  full  and  crinkly;  shanks 
stout,  matching,  shaped  off  somewhat  towards 
the  inside ;  knees  round  and  not  large,  hoofs 
hard.  The  veins  should  be  visible  all  over 
the  body,  convenient  for  treatment  when  he 
is  not  well. 

VERGIL. 

From  the  "  Georgics,"  3,  79  ff.,  published  about 
29  B.  c.     Translated  from  the  text  of  Ribbeck. 

Lofty  is  his  neck  and  brisk-moving  his 
head ;  short  in  the  barrel  is  he,  plump  of 
back,  his  undaunted  breast  swelling  with 
folds   of  muscle.      The   bays   and   grays   are 


112        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

noble  beasts ;  the  poorest  colour  is  white  and 
yellow.  Then,  when  arms  clash  afar,  he 
cannot  keep  the  spot,  but  pricks  up  his  ears, 
quivers  in  every  limb,  and  clouds  roll  from 
his  fiery  nostrils.  His  thick  mane  on  his 
right  shoulder  falls,  and  there  it  Hes;  his 
chine  is  double  where  it  runs  along  the  back, 
and  his  firm-horned  hoof  rings  loudly  as  he 
paws  the  ground  to  hollows. 

CALPURNIUS   SICULUS. 

From  the  "  Eclogues,''  6,  52  £f.,  written  probably 
between  57  and  60  a  d.  Translated  from  the  Latin 
by  E.  J.  L.  Scott. 

My  beast  displays 
A  deep-set  back  ;  a  head  and  neck 
That  tossing  proudly  feel  no  check 
From  over-bulk;  feet  fashioned  slight, 
Thin  flanks,  and  brow  of  massive  height; 
While  in  its  narrow  horny  sheath 
A  well-turned  hoof  is  bound  beneath. 

COLUMELLA. 

From  "  De  Re  Rustica,"  6,  29,  2  ff.,  written  a 
little  before  65  a.  d.  Translated  from  the  Greek  text 
of  Schneider. 

Small  head,  black  eyes,  nostrils  flaring, 
short  ears  set  up  straight;   neck  supple  and 


POINTS   OF  THE   HORSE.  II3 

broad  without  being  long;  mane  thick  and 
hanging  down  on  the  right  side;  broad  chest 
with  the  muscles  bulging  out  everywhere ; 
large  straight  shoulders ;  sides  curving,  seat 
double,  belly  drawn  in,  stones  small  and 
alike,  broad  flanks  sinking  in;  tail  long, 
thick,  and  crinkly;  shanks  supple,  deep,  and 
straight;  knee  well-turned,  small,  and  not 
turned  in ;  rounded  buttocks ;  thighs  bulging 
with  muscles  everywhere ;  hoofs  hard,  high, 
hollow,  and  round,  topping  off  with  moderate- 
sized  coronets. 

OPPIAN. 

From  the  "  Cynegetica,"  i,  176  ff,,  a  poem  written 
in  the  first  part  of  the  third  century.  Translated  from 
the  Greek  text  of  Schneider. 

Let  him  be  large  himself  and  round  of 
limb,  but  small  be  the  head  he  raises  high  and 
loftily  above  his  neck ;  lofty  his  crest,  but  let 
the  jaw  come  down  low,  inclining  towards  the 
throat;  broad  and  beautiful  should  be  his 
front  between  the  brows,  and  from  above  let 
thickly  clustering  locks  fall  about  his  face ; 
under  the  brow  his  bright  eyes  flash  with 
ruddy    fiery    light;     wide    are    his    nostrils, 


114       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

small  his  ears,  and  fair-sized  his  mouth;  his 
neck  well  rounded,  shaggy  with  the  mane, 
like  the  helmet  with  its  nodding  flowing 
crest;  wide  his  chest,  the  barrel  long,  back 
broad,  chine  double,  and  loins  plump ;  his 
long-haired  tail  should  flow  out  far  behind 
him;  his  thighs  should  be  well-knit  and 
muscular;  below,  his  shank  bones  should 
be  straight  and  long,  round,  handsome,  free 
from  flesh,  like  the  long-antlered  stag's  whose 
feet  are  storm-swift;  his  pasterns  sloping, 
his  round  hoofs  coming  well  up  above  the 
ground,  compact,  horny,  and   strong. 

NEMESIAN. 

From  the  "  Cynegetica,"  verse  245  £f.,  written  in 
the  second  half  of  the  third  century.  Translated  from 
the  Latin  text  of  Haupt. 

His  back  is  smooth  and  broad  of  surface ; 
flank  very  long ;  the  belly  small,  even  on  large 
animals ;  brow  lofty,  ears  mobile,  head  hand- 
some, and  crest  high ;  eyes  flashing  with 
radiant  light;  his  neck  mighty  and  arching 
back  to  his  stout  shoulders ;  the  breath  of  his 
hot  nostrils  rolls  forth  like  steam;    his  foot 


POINTS   OF  THE   HORSE.  II5 

loves  not  the  task  of  standing  still,  but  his 
hoof  smites  the  ground  continually,  and  his 
high  spirit  wearies  out  his  own  limbs. 

APSYRTUS. 

Apsyrtus  was  a  veterinary  surgeon  under  Con- 
stantine  the  Great  in  the  first  part  of  the  fourth 
century.  The  translation  is  from  the  compilation 
called  the  "  Geoponics,"  16,  i,  9  ff. 

Small  head,  black  eyes,  nostrils  not  con- 
verging, ears  erect,  neck  supple  ;  mane  thick, 
somewhat  crinkly,  and  falling  on  the  right 
side  of  the  neck;  chest  broad  and  muscular, 
shoulders  large,  forearms  straight,  belly  well- 
rounded,  stones  small ;  seat  preferably  double^ 
otherwise  not  humped  ;  tail  large  and  crinkly- 
haired,  shanks  straight,  thighs  muscular ;  hoof 
of  a  good  contour,  and  equally  solid  on  all 
sides  ;  frog  small,  horn  hard. 

PELAGONIUS. 

Pelagonius  lived  in  the  last  half  of  the  fourth- 
century.  The  translation  is  from  the  new  edition  of 
his  "  Ars  Veterinaria,"  §  2,  by  M.  Ihm,  Leipzig,  1892. 

Small  head,  black  eyes,  nostrils  open,  ears 
short  and  pricked  up  ;  neck  flexible  and  broad 


Il6       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

without  being  long ;  mane  thick  and  falling  on 
the  right  side ;  broad  and  muscular  chest, 
big  straight  shoulders,  muscles  sticking  out 
all  over  the  body,  sides  sloping  in,  double 
back,  small  belly,  stones  small  and  alike, 
flanks  broad  and  drawn  in ;  tail  long  and  not 
bristly,  for  this  is  ugly;  legs  straight;  knee 
round,  small,  and  not  turned  in;  buttocks 
and  thighs  full  and  muscular;  hoofs  black, 
high,  and  hollow,  topping  off  with  moderate- 
sized  coronets.  He  should  in  general  be  so 
formed  as  to  be  large,  high,  well  set  up,  of 
an  active  look,  and  round-barrelled  in  the 
proportion  proper  to  his  length. 

PALLADIUS. 

From  the  "  De  Re  Rustica,"  4,  13,  2  ff,  written 
probably  about  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century. 
Translated  from  the  Latin  text  of  Schneider. 

In  a  stallion  four  things  are  to  be  tested, — 
his  shape,  colour,  action,  and  beauty.  For 
shape  we  shall  try  for  a  large  compact  body, 
height  to  suit  his  strength,  a  very  long  flank, 
big  round  haunches,  breast  broad,  the  surface 
of  the  body  all  closely  knotted  with  muscles ; 
foot  dry  and  firm,  the  horn  which  forms  its 


POINTS    OF  THE   HORSE.  II7 

shoe  hollow  and  pretty  high.  The  points  of 
beauty  are  a  small  dry  head,  with  scarcely 
anything  but  mere  skin  on  its  bones;  ears 
short  and  mobile,  large  eyes,  wide  nostrils, 
neck  erect,  mane  thick,  tail  even  fuller,  hoofs 
set  on  firm  and  round.  In  action,  let  him  be 
high-spirited,  swift-footed,  quivering-limbed 
(a  proof  of  courage),  and  willing  to  be 
put  to  speed  from  a  dead  halt  and  to  stop  in 
the  midst  of  a  fast  dash  without  making 
trouble.  The  principal  colours  are  chestnut, 
golden,  albino,  bay,  brown,  fawn,  yellowish^ 
checkered,  dead  white,  piebald,  glistening 
white,  black,  dark.  Of  less  value  and  of 
various  degrees  of  beauty,  black  mixed  with 
albino  or  chestnut,  gray  with  any  other  colour 
you  like;  dappled,  spotted,  mouse-colour,  or 
even  duskier.  But  in  the  case  of  stallions, 
let  us  pick  out  a  single  distinct  colour;  others 
are  to  be  disdained  unless  great  merit  in 
other  ways  makes  up  for  defect  in  colour. 
The  same  points  must  be  considered  in 
brood  mares;  especially  they  should  have 
long  large  barrels  and  bodies. 


NOTES. 

1.  (Page  13.)  Simon  was  an  Athenian,  but  we 
do  not  know  exactly  when  he  Hved  and  wrote. 
The  story  of  his  criticism  of  Micon's  picture  (see 
p.  85)  sets  the  earUest  limit  (Micon  was  a  con- 
temporary of  Polygnotus,  who  was  in  Athens  about 
460  B.C.),  and  Xenophon's  mention  of  him  the 
latest.  Various  theories  have  been  propounded,  such 
as  W.  Helbig's,  who  thought  (A.  Z.  186 1,  p.  180) 
that  he  was  the  Simon  mentioned  in  Aristophanes 
(Knights,  242),  and  that  he  was  Hipparch  in 
424  B.  c. ;  and  Gerhard's,  who  recognized  him  in 
the  figure  of  a  charioteer  inscribed  with  his  name 
on  a  vase  (Auserlesene  Vasenbilder,  iv,  taf.  249). 
But  the  earliest  known  Greek  prose  which  has  sur- 
vived is  the  tract  on  the  Athenian  State,  written 
between  424  and  413  b.  c.  ;  and  the  fragment  of 
Simon's  work  (see  p.  107)   bears  no  evidence  of 


120       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

being  older,  and  is  probably  not  so  old.  It  is 
likely  that  it  was  written  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century.  Xenophon,  in  speaking  of  Simon, 
scarcely  uses  the  tone  which  would  have  been 
proper  in  speaking  of  a  very  ancient  writer. 
Besides  the  long  fragment  a  few  short  ones  are 
preserved  in  Pollux.  According  to  Pliny  (Nat. 
Hist.  34,  76),  a  statue  of  Simon  dressed  as  a 
knight  was  made  by  Demetrius  (who  flourished 
probably  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fifth  century)  ; 
but  this  may  be  only  a  mistaken  allusion  to  the 
statue  of  the  horse  mentioned  by  Xenophon.  It 
is  supposed  by  Ernst  Curtius  (Die  Stadtgeschichte 
von  Athen,  p.  188),  who  calls  Simon  a  contem- 
porary of  Pericles,  that  this  statue  was  intended 
to  embody  a  perfect  representation  of  the  ideal 
horse,  just  as  the  famous  work  by  Polycleitus  illus- 
trated the  proportions  of  the  ideal  man ;  but  this 
is  of  course  a  mere  theory,  unsupported  by  Hterary 
evidence. 

2.  (Page  13.)  The  Eleusinion,  in  Athens,  was 
a  precinct  of  Demeter,  Kore,  and  Triptolemus, 
with  two  temples ;  it  often  served  as  the  goal  of 
processions,  especially  cavalry  displays. 

3.  (Page  14.)  This  excellent  advice  stamps  Xen- 
ophon at  once  as  a  true  horseman.  Horace, 
though  he  was  no  rider,  knew  the  doctrine  too; 
witness  Sat.  i,  2,  86  :  — 


NOTES.  121 

"  Regibus  hie  mos  est,  ubi  equos  mercantur  :  opertos 
Inspiciunt,  ne  si  facies,  ut  saepe,  decora 
Molli  fulta  pede  est,  emptorem  inducat  hiantem 
Quod  pulchrae  dunes,  breve  quod  caput,  ardua  cervix- 
Hoc  illi  recte ;  " 

which  may  be  rendered,  — 

Swells,  when  they  buy  horses,  have  a  way  of  cov- 
ering them  up  when  they  look  them  over,  for  fear  that 
a  handsome  shape  set  upon  tender  feet,  as  often  hap- 
pens, may  take  in  the  buyer  as  he  hangs  open-mouthed 
over  fine  haunches,  small  head,  and  stately  neck. 
And  they  're  right  in  it. 

4.  (Page  14.)  Throughout  this  book  it  should 
be  remembered  that  the  ancients  did  not  shoe 
their  horses.  The  Romans,  indeed,  used  for 
mules  the  solea,  a  sort  of  sock  of  leather  com- 
pletely covering  the  hoof  and  tied  about  the 
fetlock,  strengthened  underneath  by  a  plate  of 
iron  (Catullus,  17,  26).  Nero  substituted  plates 
of  silver  (Suetonius,  Nero,  30),  and  his  luxurious 
wife,  Poppaea,  gold  (Pliny,  Nat.  Hist,  ^t^,  140). 
But  w^e  do  not  hear  of  socks  for  horses,  except 
that  in  the  retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand  an  Arme- 
nian showed  the  Greeks  how  to  wTap  their  horses' 
feet  in  little  bags  when  travelling  through  deep 
snow.  But  of  course  all  this  is  quite  different  from 
the  modern  practice  of  permanent  shoeing.  This 
latter  is  first  mentioned  in  literature  in  the  time 
of  the  Emperor  Justinian,  the  first  half  of  the 
sixth    century   (Martin,  Les    Cavaliers    Atheniens, 


122       XENOPHON  ON  HORSEMANSHIP. 

p.  400)  ;  but  shoes  were  probably  known  earlier. 
It  is  said  that  one  was  found  in  the  tomb  of  King 
Childeric,  who  died  in  460  a.  d.  There  is  a  cut  of 
it,  taken  from  Montfaucon,  in  Ginzrot,  ii,  tab. 
86,  I.  The  cut  makes  it  practically  identical  with 
the  modern  shoe ;  but  Beckmann,  in  his  "  History 
of  Inventions,"  justly  doubts  the  trustworthiness 
of  the  picture. 

5.  (Page  15.)  The  Greek  word  used  by  Xeno- 
phon  is  x€A.i8(oi/,  which  literally  means  "  swallow ;  " 
and  the  frog  was  so  named  from  its  resemblance 
to  the  forked  tail  of  the  bird.  In  later  Greek  we 
find  it  called  jSdrpaxos,  "frog"  (Geoponics,  16,  i, 
9,  from  Apsyrtus),  and  in  Latin  i^anula,  "little 
frog"  (Vegetius,  i,  56,  31).  The  French  call  it 
foin'chette  ;  the  Germans  Strahl.  It  will  be  observed 
that  Xenophon's  principle  (supported  by  the  other 
writers)  of  keeping  the  frog  well  up  from  the 
ground,  and  caUing  for  a  high  and  hollow  hoof  is 
not  always  accepted  in  modern  times. 

6.  (Page  15.)  This  remark,  and  many  of  the 
works  of  art  show  that  it  was  not  the  custom  to 
trim  down  the  fetlocks.  In  warm  climates  they  do 
not  grow  very  long,  and  instead  of  disfiguring  the 
foot  serve  rather  to  set  off  its  contour. 

7.  (Page  16.)  The  Greek  word  is  -rrepovq,  which 
has  given  much  trouble  to  translators  and  com- 
mentators.    It  means  literally  the  pin  of  a  brooch, 


NOTES.  123 

—  the  Greek  brooch  being  shaped  somewhat  Hke 
the  modern  safety-pin.  In  the  anatomical  writers 
it  was  naturally  applied  to  the  small  bone  in  the 
man's  arm  or  leg,  —  the  radius  or  fibula.  In  the 
horse,  of  course,  this  bone  is  above  what  we  call 
his  "knee;"  and  Xenophon,  who  has  not  yet 
reached  this  knee,  cannot  be  thinking  of  a  part 
above  it.  Hence  it  has  generally  been  believed 
that  he  meant  a  bone  in  the  knee  itself,  one  of 
the  astragals.  But  I  believe  that  Xenophon  was 
not  thinking  of  the  skeleton,  but  rather  of  the 
animal  as  he  looked  in  the  flesh.  Indeed  he  may 
not  have  understood  the  anatomy  of  the  horse  in 
its  relation  to  man's ;  certainly  below  he  speaks  of 
the  forearm  as  if  it  corresponded  to  the  upper 
instead  of  to  the  lower  arm  in  man.  What,  then, 
was  more  natural  than  that  he  should  compare  the 
back  sinew  to  the  small  bone  of  man's  leg?  This 
granted,  he  has  described  what  naturally  follows 
when  a  horse  with  *' gummy"  legs  (just  what  he 
has  been  speaking  of)  is  put  to  hard  work.  He 
breaks  down,  or  gives  way  in  the  back  sinews. 
This  explanation  seems  to  have  occurred  to  none 
of  the  commentators,  —  not  even  to  Dindorf, 
though  he  had  the  advantage  of  using  the  frag- 
ment of  Simon  (see  p.  109)  in  which  the  word 
irepovT]  is  used  exactly  as  in  Xenophon.  I  am 
happy  to  be  supported  in  my  view  of  the  passage 
by  Dr.  Lyman,  Dean  of  the  Harvard  Veterinary 


124       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

School,  to  whom  I  submitted  my  opinion.  After 
reaching  it,  I  found  that  the  same  translation  of 
the  word  was  used  by  Stonehenge  (see  p.  89). 

8.  (Page  16)  I  have  used  the  word  "  forearms  " 
for  greater  clearness.  Xenophon  calls  them 
thighs  (^i7pot),  applying  the  same  word  to  the 
fore  as  later  to  the  hind  legs.  No  special  horse 
dialect  had  yet  developed ;  but  the  same  words,  so 
far  as  possible,  were  used  of  horses  as  of  men. 

9.  (Page  16.)  The  lean,  dry  head  with  small 
bones,  was  esteemed  the  most  beautiful ;  and  this 
point  is  insisted  upon  by  all  the  ancient  writers 
except  Nemesian,  who  says  merely  that  the  head 
should  be  handsome. 

10.  (Page  17.)  Xenophon  seems  to  mean  the 
*'  bars  "  here.  Their  fineness  was  a  thing  not  to  be 
seen  by  the  eye,  but  to  be  discovered  by  trial  in 
riding,  as  he  says  in  the  third  chapter,  in  his 
remark  about  the  Volte. 

11.  (Page  17.)  The  reason  for  this  requirement, 
so  well  recognized  for  race-horses,  is  well  stated  by 
Professor  Flower  in  his  admirable  little  book  called 
"  The  Horse  :  a  Study  in  Natural  History  "  (p.  142, 
American  edition) :  "  Owing  to  the  great  length  of 
the  soft  palate  and  its  relation  to  the  upper  end  of 
the  windpipe,  breathing  takes  place  entirely  through 
the  nose.  When  men,  dogs,  and  many  other  ani- 
mals, in  consequence  of  any  great  exertion,  begin 


NOTES.  125 

to  pant  and  require  an  additional  quantity  of  air  to 
that  which  is  ordinarily  taken  in  by  the  nose,  the 
mouth  comes  to  the  aid  of  that  channel  and  is 
widely  opened ;  but  the  horse  under  the  same 
circumstances  can  only  expand  the  margins  of  the 
nostrils,  for  which  action  there  is  a  very  efficient 
set  of  muscles,  acting  on  the  cartilaginous  frame- 
work which  supports  them  and  determines  their 
peculiar  outline." 

12.  (Page  17.)  Small  ears,  set  well  apart  so 
as  to  leave  a  large  poll,  formed  the  type  of 
beauty  which  gave  rise  to  the  name  Bucephalus 
(l3ovK€cjia\o^,  "  bull-"  or  "  ox-headed  ").  This  was 
applied  to  a  valuable  breed  of  Thessalian  horses 
(Aristophanes,  Frag.  135)  long  before  it  was 
given,  in  a  shghtly  modified  form,  to  Bucephalas, 
the  famous  charger  of  Alexander.  Examples  of 
this  type  are  the  bronze  head  in  the  Uffizi  and 
the  famous  marble  head  by  Phidias  (see  frontis- 
piece and  plate  facing  p.  8^). 

13.  (Page  17.)  The  idea  is  that  in  well-built 
horses,  in  good  condition,  the  flesh  rises  on  each 
side  of  the  spine  so  that  the  latter  does  not  stick 
up  like  a  ridge  but  lies  in  a  slight  depression. 
This  quality  was  of  course  even  more  highly  appre- 
ciated before  the  days  of  saddles  than  it  is  now. 
It  is  mentioned  also  by  Vergil,  Columella,  Oppian, 
and  Apsyrtus. 


126       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

14.  (Page  i8.)  The  word  used  here,  vTro/^aa-t^,  is 
very  vague,  and  has  given  rise  to  various  interpre- 
tations. I  think  it  refers  to  the  act  of  gathering 
in  the  hind  legs  in  doing  the  demi-pesade, 
described  in  the  eleventh  chapter. 

15.  (Page  i8.)  This  fact  is  noted  also  by  Aris- 
totle (Part.  Anim.  4,  10,  12)  and  Pliny  (Nat. 
Hist.  II,  260),  who  state  that  young  quadrupeds 
can  reach  their  heads  to  scratch  them  with  the 
hind  feet;  Pliny  adds  that  they  cannot  graze 
without  bending  the  forelegs.  Buffon  indepen- 
dently observed  these  facts.  Schlieben  (p.  86) 
gives  two  Arabian  methods  of  estimating  what 
will  be  the  height  of  horses.  By  the  first  a  cord 
is  stretched  from  the  nostril  over  the  ears  and 
down  along  the  neck ;  this  distance  is  compared 
with  that  from  the  withers  to  the  foot ;  the  colt 
will  grow  as  much  taller  as  the  first  distance 
exceeds  the  second.  By  the  other  method,  the 
distance  between  the  knee  and  the  withers  is 
compared  with  that  from  the  knee  to  the  coronet ; 
if  it  has  reached  the  proportion  of  two  to  one,  the 
horse  will  grow  no  taller. 

16.  (Page  20.)   See  p.  75. 

17.  (page  23.)  By  the  word  "  markers,"  yi/w/xove?, 
Xenophon  means  the  milk-teeth,  and  he  is  there- 
fore advising  against  the  purchase  of  a  horse  over 
five    years    old.     The    times    of  the    shedding  of 


NOTES.  127 

these  teeth  were  well  understood  by  the  ancients, 
as  we  know  from  Aristotle,  Hist.  Anim.  6, 
22,  12;  Varro,  Res  Rusticae,  2,  7,  2  ;  Apsyrtus 
in  the  "  Geoponics,"  16,  i,  12.  What  we  now 
call  the  "  marks  "  are  of  course  in  the  permanent 
teeth ;  they  are  spoken  of  by  Varro,  Ibid.  2,  7,  2  ; 
Columella,  6,  29,  4;  Apsyrtus,  Ibid.  16,  i,  12. 
Aristotle  sets  the  average  age  of  horses  at  from 
eighteen  to  twenty  years;  some,  he  says,  live  to 
be  twenty- five  or  thirty ;  and  with  great  care  a 
horse  may  live  to  be  fifty,  though  thirty  is  generally 
the  highest  limit  (Hist.  Anim.  6,  22,  8). 

18.  (Page  24.)  The  word  here  and  in  chapter 
seven  is  ireSr],  which  properly  means  "  fetter." 
Godfrey  Hermann,  in  his  essay  on  the  words  which 
the  Greeks  used  to  denote  the  gaits  of  the  horse 
(Comment.  Lips.  p.  59),  has  shown  that  the  Volte 
is  meant  in  these  passages. 

19.  (Page  24.)  He  seems  to  mean  that  if,  for 
example,  the  stable  lies  to  the  right,  the  horse  will 
throw  his  head  to  the  left,  and  advancing  his  right 
shoulder,  will  make  a  bolt  for  it.  The  left  rein 
being  loose  and  the  right  side  of  the  mouth  hard, 
the  rider  will  have  no  control  over  the  animal. 
But  the  passage  is  obscurely  worded,  and  has  been 
variously  interpreted.  It  may  mean  ^'  unless  they 
are  hard-mouthed  and  also  are  directed  towards 
home." 


128        XENOPKON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

20.  (Page  27.)  The  stable  was  part  of  the  town- 
house,  and  was  situated  on  one  side  of  the  front 
door.  In  the  country  it  may  have  been  an  out- 
building. 

21.  (Page  27.)  Aristotle  (Oeconomica,  i,  6,  4) 
tells  of  a  Persian  who  was  asked,  "  What  is  the  best 
thing  to  make  a  horse  plump?  "  and  who  answered, 
"  His  master's  eye." 

22.  (Page  28.)  Barley  was  the  ordinary  feed 
for  Greek  horses.  Apsyrtus  says  that  the  disease 
was  an  indigestion  coming  from  eating  when  out 
of  breath  after  a  journey  or  a  run.  Among  the 
symptoms  he  mentions  that  the  horse  is  doubled 
up,  cannot  bend  his  legs,  and  refuses  to  move, 
throws  himself  down,  and  takes  his  food  lying. 
A  like  account  is  given  by  Vegetius  (Mulomedi- 
cina,  5,  43,  i).  Aristotle  calls  the  disease  incu- 
rable '< unless  it  cures  itself"  (H.  A.  8,  24,  4). 

Besides  barley,  Greek  horses  were  frequently  fed 
on  spelt,  sometimes  on  hay ;  and  wheat  is  men- 
tioned two  or  three  times  by  Homer.  A  mash  of 
barley  and  green  herbs  was  prescribed  in  cases 
when  a  mash  would  now  be  given. 

23.  (Page  28.)  Courier  tried  the  experiment, 
and  describes  it  as  follows  :  "  A  Bari,  ville  maritime 
de  la  Pouille  pierreuse,  on  garnit  le  sol  d'une 
^curie  construite  pour  quatre  chevaux,  d'un  lit 
de   cailloux  pris  sur  la  plage,   et  arrondis  par  la 


NOTES.  129 

mer,  dont  les  plus  gros  pouvaient  avoir  le  volume 
d'un  boulet  de  quatre.  Ce  lit,  de  dix-huit  pouces 
a  peu  pres  de  hauteur  sous  la  mangeoire,  qui  fut 
exhaussee  d'autant,  s'abaissait  en  pente  vers  le 
mur  oppose.  Trois  chevaux  y  furent  places  pieds 
nus  :  1  'un,  poulain  de  quatre  aiis,  race  des  envi- 
rons de  Cirignola,  qui  n'avait  jamais  en  de  fers ; 
I'autre,  de  huit  ans,  d'Acquaviva,  ferre  ordinaire- 
ment  de  devant ;  le  troisieme,  vieux  cheval  de 
troupe.  De  ces  trois  chevaux,  le  premier  seule- 
ment  avait  le  sabot  bien  fait  et  la  corne  assez. 
bonne.  On  les  pansait  a  I'ecurie,  d'ou  ils  ne 
sortaient  que  pour  la  promenade ;  on  mettait  sous 
eux  la  nuit,  au  heu  de  litiere,  quelques  brins  de 
sarment.  Leur  urine  tombant  a  travers  les  pierres 
sur  le  pave  tres-uni  de  1'  ecurie,  s'ecoulait  a  I'ordi- 
naire  avec  I'eau  qu'on  y  jetait  de  temps  en  temps 
pour  nettoyer  la  place ;  de  sorte  que  le  cheval 
etait  toujours  a  sec.  Chaque  jour,  soir  et  matin, 
le  poulain  trottait  plusieurs  reprises  a  la  longe,  sur 
la  greve,  ou  Ton  avait  amass^  des  cailloux  pareils 
a  ceux  de  I'ecurie.  Au  bout  de  deux  mois  et 
demi,  sa  corne  etait  plus  compacte,  et  la  fourchette 
surtout  avait  acquis  une  solidite  remarquable.  If 
fit  le  voyage  de  Bari  a  Tarente  passant  par 
Monopoh,  Ostuni,  Brindisi,  Lecce,  Manduria,  tous- 
chemins  de  traverse  remplis  de  pierres,  et  revint 
sans  etre  ferre  ni  incommode  :  a  la  verite  on  ne 
I'avait  monte  que  deux  jours  ;  mais  il  aurait  resiste 


130        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

a  de  plus  grandes  fatigues,  et  il  etait  aise  de  voir  que 
les  memes  soins  continues  I'auraient  mis  en  etat 
de  se  passer  de  fers  toute  sa  vie  ;  il  fut  vendu.  Les 
deux  autres  n'eurent  pas  le  meme  succes  :  leur 
corne,  gatee  par  les  clous,  se  fendait  et  s'exfoliait 
pour  peu  qu'ils  marchassent ;  mais  peutetre  qu'avec 
le  temps  ils  se  seraient  fait  un  bon  pied. 

"  Cette  epreuve  eut  lieu  dans  les  mois  juillet, 
aout  et  septembre ;  on  ne  peut  douter  qu'elle 
Ti'eut  completement  reussi  sur  des  chevaux 
calabrais,  qui  ont  meilleur  pied  que  ceux  de  la 
Pouille." 

Stalls  paved  as  Xenophon  describes  are  not  by 
any  means  unknown  both  here  and  in  England. 
The  late  E.  F.  Bowditch,  Esq.,  of  Framingham, 
was  a  strong  believer  in  them,  though  he  would 
by  no  means  have  approved  the  hollow  hoof  de- 
scribed in  Xenophon's  first  chapter.  But  of 
course  his  horses  were  shod,  and  so  shod  that 
the  frog  and  heel  were  very  close  to  the  ground. 
His  object  in  using  the  cobble-stones  was  to  stimu- 
late the  growth  of  those  parts,  and  to  keep  them 
soft  so  as  to  prevent  the  frog  from  shrivelling. 
This  softness  of  the  frog  and  its  contact  with  the 
ground,  he  thought,  prevented  all  jar  on  the  foot, 
the  frog  acting  as  a  buffer. 

24.  (Page  29.)  The  Greek  cared  for  his  body 
by  bathing  and  rubbing  as  well  as  by  the  free  use 


NOTES.  1 3 1 

of  oil.  Hence  Pollux  (i,  201)  advises  rubbing  the 
horse's  bars  with  the  fingers  to  make  them  fine, 
and  washing  the  mouth  and  lips  with  warm  water 
and  anointing  them  with  oil. 

25.  (Page  31.)  The  muzzle  was  of  thin  bronze, 
perforated  like  a  sieve,  or  of  bronze  wire  or  wicker. 
See  cut,  p.  34. 

26.  (Page  31.)  It  was  the  custom  among  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  to  give  the  horse  a  roll  in 
fine  sand  after  he  had  exercised.  So  Pheidippides 
in  the  "Clouds"  of  Aristophanes  (32),  after  a 
dream  of  horse-racing,  calls  out  in  his  sleep  to 
his  slave  to  give  the  horse  a  roll  and  take  him 
home.  And  Isomachus  in  Xenophon's  "  Oecono 
micus"  (11,  18)  has  his  slave  do  the  same  thing 
after  his  morning's  ride.  This  Isomachus  was  a 
fine  type  of  the  Athenian  of  the  best  period,  — 
pure-minded,  honourable,  and  upright.  He  was  a 
lover  of  the  country  and  a  fearless  rider ;  and  the 
following  account  which  he  gives  Socrates  of  the 
way  in  which  he  was  wont  to  spend  his  mornings 
makes  a  delightful  picture.  The  translation  here 
given  was  made  by  Gentien  Plervet  in  1532,  I 
copy  from  the  edition  of  1537  (Thomas  Berthelet, 
printer,  London). 

*'  I  ryse  in  the  mornynge  out  of  my  bed  so 
yerly,  that  if  I  wold  speke  with  any  ma,  I  shall 
be  sure  to  fynde  him  yet  within.     And  if  I  haue 


132        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

any  thynge  ado  in  the  citie,  I  go  about  it,  & 
take  it  for  a  walke.  And  if  I  haue  no  matter  of 
great  importance  to  do  within  the  citye,  my  page 
bryngeth  my  horse  afore  in  to  the  fieldes,  and  so 
I  take  the  way  to  my  groud  for  a  walke,  better 
parauenture,  than  if  I  dyd  walke  in  the  galeries 
and  walking  places  of  the  citie.  And  whan  I 
come  to  my  grounde,  and  if  my  tenantes  be  eyther 
settynge  of  trees,  or  tyllyng  or  renewyng  the 
grounde,  or  sowynge,  or  caryenge  of  the  fruite,  I 
beholde  howe  euerye  thynge  is  done,  and  caste  in 
my  mynde,  how  I  might  do  it  better.  And  after- 
warde  for  the  moste  parte,  I  gette  me  a  horsebacke 
and  ride  as  nere  as  I  can,  as  though  I  were  in 
warre  constrayned  to  do  the  same,  wherefore  I  do 
not  spare  nother  croked  wayes,  nor  noo  shroude 
goinges  up,  no  ditches,  waters,  hedges,  nor 
trenches,  takynge  hede  for  al  that,  as  nere  as  can 
be  possible,  that  in  this  doing,  I  do  not  maime 
my  horse.  And  wha  I  haue  thus  doone,  the  page 
leadethe  the  horse  trottynge  home  agayne,  and 
caryeth  home  with  him  into  the  citie,  out  of  the 
cotre  that  that  we  haue  nede  of.  And  so  than  I 
get  me  home  againe,  somtimes  walkyng,  and 
sometime  runnynge.  Than  I  wasshe  my  handes, 
and  so  go  to  dyner  good  Soc.  the  which  is  or- 
deyned  betwene  bothe,  soo  that  I  abyde  all  the 
daye  nother  voyde  nor  yet  to  ful." 

Besides  the  charm  of  its  language,  this  transla- 


NOTES.  133 

tion  is  vety  accurate ;  there  is  in  it  but  one  real 
error,  for  Xenophon  does  not  say  that  the  page 
leads  the  horse  "trotting"  home,  but  that  he 
"gives  him  a  roll "  and  then  leads  him  home. 

27.  (Page  31.)  Pollux  (i,  185)  mentions  sev- 
eral.' The  a-n-dOq,  which  he  describes  as  wooden 
and  shaped  like  a  feather,  was  used  for  cleaning  the 
hair.  The  word  really  means  "'  any  broad  blade  ;  " 
and  this  implement  is  doubtless  to  be  recognized 
on  an  Assyrian  relief  from  Nimroud,  representing 
the  stable  of  Assurnazirpal.  Other  implements 
were  the  ifz-qKrpa,  for  combing  out,  of  iron  with 
teeth  like  a  saw,  corresponding  to  our  curry-comb; 
and  the  crojpaKt?,  which  seems  to  have  been  a  sort 
of  mitten  of  purple  cloth,  used  by  the  groom  in 
rubbing  down  and  to  give  a  gloss  to  the  coat. 

28.  (Page  32.)  This  prescription  goes  back  to 
Homer,  II.  23,  280,  "a  charioteer  .  .  .  who  on 
their  manes  full  often  poured  smooth  oil,  when  he 
had  washed  them  with  water."  The  Scholiast  on 
these  Hues  says  :  "  This  is  why  Xenophon  recom- 
mends the  washing  of  the  head  and  forelock  with 
water;  "  and  he  adds  the  irrelevant  but  interesting 
information  that  about  a  sixth  of  a  pint  of  oil  was 
enough  to  supple  a  man's  whole  body. 

29.  (Page  32.)  Upon  this  passage  Berenger 
(The    History    and    Art    of    Horsemanship,    by 


134       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

Richard  Berenger,  Gentleman  of  the  Horse  to 
His  Majesty:  London,  1771)  has  the  following 
interesting  note  (Vol.  I,  p.  239)  :  — 

"  These  observations  are  so  true  and  just  that  one 
could  almost  think  it  needless  to  dwell  upon  them  ; 
yet  such  is  the  cruelty  and  absurdity  of  our  notions 
and  customs  in  '  cropping,'  as  it  is  called,  the  ears 
of  our  horses,  '  docking '  and  '  nicking '  their  tails, 
that  we  every  day  fly  in  the  face  of  reason,  nature,  and 
humanity.  Nor  are  the  present  race  of  men  in  this 
island  alone  to  be  charged  with  this  folly,  almost  unbe- 
coming the  ignorance  and  cruelty  of  savages  ;  but 
their  forefathers,  several  centuries  ago,  were  charged 
and  reprehended  by  a  public  canon  for  this  absurd 
and  barbarous  practice  ;  however,  we  need  but  look 
into  the  streets  and  roads  to  be  convinced  that 
their  descendants  have  not  degenerated  from  them; 
although  his  present  Majesty,  in  his  wisdom  and 
humanity,  has  endeavoured  to  reclaim  them,  by  issu- 
ing an  order  that  the  horses  which  serve  in  his  troops 
should  remain  as  nature  designed  them : 
*  Who  never  made  her  work  for  man  to  mend.'  —  Dryden." 

"  The  title  of  the  canon  is,  — 

"  19.     Ut    reliquias    rituum   paganoriun   quisque 
abjiciat. 

Eqtios  vestros  turpi  consuetiidine  detrimcatis,  tiares 
Jinditis,  aures  copulatis^  verum  etia7n  et  siirdas 
redditis,  caudas  amputatis;  et  qtiin  illos  illaesos 
habere  potestis,  hoc  nolentes  cunctis  odibiles  redditis. 
Eqiios  etiam  pleriqiie  in  vobis  comedunt,  quod  nulhis 
Christianorum  in  Orientalibiis  facitj  quod  etiam 
evitate. 


NOTES.  135 

"  From  the  influence  of  a  vile  and  unbecoming 
custom,  you  deform  and  mutilate  your  horses,  you 
sht  their  nostrils,  tie  their  ears  together,  and  by  so 
doing  make  them  deaf ;  besides  this  you  cut  ofif  their 
tails  ;  and  when  you  enjoy  them  uninjured  and  perfect, 
you  chose  rather  to  maim  and  blemish  them,  so  as  to 
make  them  odious  and  disgustful  objects  to  all  who 
see  them.  Numbers  of  you  likewise  are  accustomed 
to  eat  your  horses, —  a  practice  of  which  no  Christians 
in  the  East  were  ever  guilty.  This  also  you  are 
hereby  admonished  to  renounce  entirely." 

This  canon  was  number  nineteen  among  those 
passed  at  the  Council  of  Calcuith,  held  in  787  or 
785  A.  D.  It  may  be  found  in  Spelman's  Councils 
of  England,  I,  p.  293. 

30.  (Page  32.)  Aristotle,  Aelian,  Plutarch,  and 
Pliny  all  repeat  this  strange  story.  Sophocles 
evidently  knew  it ;  I  translate  from  a  fragment 
(598)  of  his  'a>o"  :  — 

For  my  lost  locks  I  mourn,  like  some  young  mare 

That  rustic  drivers  catch  and  hale  away 

To  where  their  rude  hands  in  the  stables  reap 

The  golden  harvest  clean  from  off  her  neck. 

They  drag  her  to  the  mead ;  in  its  clear  streams 

Mirrored  the  semblance  of  her  form  she  sees, 

Her  mane  with  that  foul  cropping  shorn  away. 

Oh,  then  e'en  pitiless  might  pity  her, 

Cowering  with  shame  and  like  to  some  mad  thing. 

Mourning  and  weeping  for  the  mane  that 's  gone. 

On  the  mane  in  general,  see  p.  9 1  ff. 


136       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

31.  (Page  35.)  Xenophon  says  '-'left;"  the 
Greeks  had  no  technical  terms  Hke  our  "  near  " 
and  ''off." 

32.  (Page  ;^6.)  The  strap  which  goes  over  the 
■crest  back  of  the  ears. 

33.  (Page  36.)  The  word  used  by  Xenophon 
means  properly  ''net."  It  is  applied  to  the  whole 
upper  part  of  the  bridle  with  its  different  straps. 
The  cheek-straps,  the  headpiece,  with  the  straps 
running  from  this,  beside  the  ears,  to  the  front, 
and  often  joining  a  strap  which  ran  down  the 
middle  of  the  face,  all  formed  a  sort  of  network. 

34.  (Page  ^6.)  When  a  leading-rein  or  halter 
was  attached  to  the  bridle  (see  note  ^S),  this 
caution  would  not  be  necessary ;  for  such  a  rein 
was  fastened  to  the  nose-band  or  chin-strap,  and 
hence,  if  it  had  any  pull  at  all  on  the  jaws,  it 
pulled  on  both  alike.  Xenophon  means  that  in 
the  absence  of  such  a  halter  ^o^/i  the  bridle- 
reins  must  be  grasped  at  once. 

35.  (Page  37.)  By  this  method  the  helper  took 
the  foot  or  knee  of  the  rider  in  his  hand,  and  so 
raised  him.  It  is  recommended  for  the  elder  men 
in  the  cavalry  by  Xenophon  in  his  treatise  on  the 
"General  of  Horse,"  i,  17.  It  was  the  privilege 
of  Tiribazus,  Satrap  of  Armenia,  when  he  was  at 
court,  to  mount  the  King  of  Persia  in  this  fashion 


NOTES.  137 

(Xen.  Anab.  4,  4,  4).  A  special  attendant  for 
this  purpose  is  said  to  have  accompanied  Alexan- 
der in  his  batdes  (Arrian,  Anab.  i,  15,  8).  xA.t 
the  court  of  Philip,  pages,  sons  of  noblemen, 
performed  this  duty  for  the  king  (Ibid.  4,  13,  i). 
Slaves,  however,  seem  to  have  'Mnade  a  back;" 
and  the  Roman  Emperor  Valerian,  when  prisoner 
to  Sapor,  was  obliged  by  that  haughty  prince  to 
mount  him  in  this  degrading  fashion,  and  not  to 
offer  his  hand  (Lactantius,  "  De  mortibus  perse- 
cutorum,"  5). 

36.  (Page  37.)  By  a  very  neat  touch,  Xenophon 
fancies  himself  on  the  horse's  back,  speaking  to 
him  encouragingly. 

37.  (Page  38.)  Stirrups  were  unknown  till  long 
after  the  Christian  era  began.  Other  methods  of 
mounting  are  described  in  the  next  chapter ;  but 
here  we  see  that  horses  were  sometimes  taught  to 
stoop  or  settle  down  so  as  to  make  it  easier  for  the 
rider  to  reach  his  place.  This  was  done  in  two 
ways  :  (i)  by  bending  the  knees,  and  thus  lowering 
the  shoulders;  (2)  by  throwing  the  fore  feet  for- 
ward and  the  hind  feet  back,  thus  lowering  the 
seat,  as  horses  sometimes  do  naturally  when 
tired.  The  second  is  the  method  here  spoken 
of  by  Xenophon,  who  applies  to  it  the  word 
vTro/Sifid^ea-OaL.  PoUux  (1,213)  describes  it  by 
saying  that    in   it    the    horse    set    his    legs    apart. 


138        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

settled  in,  and  lowered  himself.  A  rider  about  to 
mount  by  this  method  is  represented  on  the  frieze 
of  the  Parthenon,  and  on  a  vase  from  Nola  (see 
cut  on  p.  39).  That  it  was  employed  sometimes 
by  Roman  soldiers  is  evident  from  a  relief  in 
Clarac,  Musee  des  Sculptures,  Plate  221.  But  it  is 
not  referred  to  elsewhere  in  Greek  literature. 
Courier  had  seen  this  method  in  use  in  Germany, 
and  Jacobs  says  that  it  was  introduced  thither 
from  England  (  !  )  and  called  Strecken.  Alexan- 
der's horse  Bucephalas  was  taught  the  first  method, 
—  that  of  bending  the  knees  (Curtius,  6,  5,  18). 
This  method  is  represented  on  a  black-figured 
vase  in  the  Hermitage  collection  (see  cut  on 
p.  30).     The  Greek  word  in  this  case  is  oKXa^etv. 

38.  (Page  39.)  From  this  it  appears  that  a 
strap  or  cord,  entirely  distinct  from  the  reins,  was 
attached  to  the  bridle,  doubtless  to  be  used  in 
leading  as  well  as  in  mounting.  (See  note  34.)  It 
may  be  seen  in  the  cuts  on  pp.  34,  39,  and  29,  in 
which  it  is  attached  to  the  chin-strap.  On  a  vase- 
painting  in  Gerhard  (Auserlesene  Vasenbilder,  iv, 
293,  294,  i)  it  is  attached  to  the  nose-band.  A 
leading-rein  just  like  the  Greek  is  to  be  seen  in 
Assyrian  reliefs. 

39.  (Page  39.)  As  Greek  bits  had  no  branches, 
the  chin-strap  was  not  the  equivalent  of  our  curb- 
chain,  and  no  leverage  came  from  pulling  on  it. 


NOTES.  139 

It  merely  kept  the  bit  in  place  and  the  mouth- 
piece from  slipping  through,  and  would  cause  no 
pain  if  pulled  down  by  the  halter.  The  nose-band 
was  of  leather  or  metal.     On  the  bits,  see  note  53. 

40.  (Page  39.)  The  Roman  soldier  referred  to 
in  note  37  has  his  hand  here.  This  remark  of 
Xenophon's  throws  light  on  the  height  of  the 
Greek  cavalry  horse.  (See  p.  95.)  Mounting- 
blocks  were  often  used.  There  are  several  on 
the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon,  and  one  on  the 
Gjolbaschi  Heroon  (Taf.  23,  b.  2).  They  were 
placed  at  convenient  intervals  along  the  streets 
in  Rome  by  Gaius  Gracchus  (Plutarch,  7,  2). 

41.  (Page  39.)  In  this  method  of  mounting, 
the  spear  must  have  been  used  much  as  we  use  a 
vaulting- pole  (but  of  course  with  only  one  hand) . 
It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  there  was  a  little  pro- 
jection or  crossbar  towards  the  butt  of  the  spear, 
which  served  as  a  step  in  mounting.  The  athletic 
Greek  would  have  scorned  such  a  thing.  A  gem 
in  the  Stosch  collection,  supposed  to  represent  a 
warrior  mounting  in  that  fashion,  is  capable  of  a 
different  interpretation ;  and  the  spears  in  Stuart 
and  Revett  (Antiquities  of  Athens,  iii,  p.  47)  have 
nothing  on  them  but  the  common  thong  to  help 
in  hurling.  Yet  the  crossbar  theory  has  found 
credence  with  Ginzrot,  Berenger,  Winckelmann, 
Jacobs,  Schlieben,  and  Martin,  as  well  as  with  all 


140       XENOPHON  ON  HORSEMANSHIP. 

the  commentators  on  Xenophon's  work  except 
Courier,  who  will  have  none  of  it.  He  describes 
the  way  in  which  the  PoHsh  and  Austrian  lancers 
of  his  day,  as  well  as  the  Cossacks,  were  in  the 
habit  of  mounting ;  and  doubtless  this  is  very  like 
what  Xenophon  meant :  ''  lis  saisissent  de  la  main 
gauche  les  renes  et  une  poignee  de  crins,  et 
s'appuyant  de  la  droite  sur  la  pique,  un  peu 
penchee  vers  la  croupe  du  cheval,  ils  s'enlevent 
tout  d'un  temps,  en  mettant  la  pied  a  I'^trier,  et  le 
cavalier  se  trouve  en  selle  la  lance  en  main." 

42.  (Page  41.)  The  Greeks  had  no  saddles  with 
trees,  nor  the  Romans  until  the  fourth  century, 
so  far  as  can  be  judged  from  works  of  art.  They 
rode  either  bareback  or  upon  a  cloth  which  was 
fastened  by  a  girth  under  the  belly  or  about  the 
breast  of  the  horse.  In  works  of  art  the  girths  are 
often  omitted. 

43.  (Page  42.)  This  statement  seems  to  be 
exactly  the  reverse  of  the  truth ;  for  the  horse  in 
starting  to  canter  turns  himself  slightly  across  his 
line  of  progress,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  lead 
with  that  leg  which  is  advanced  by  this  turn. 
Hence  to  lead  with  the  left,  he  turns  his  head  to 
the  right  and  his  croup  to  the  left.  Accordingly 
there  has  been  much  discussion  of  this  passage  in 
Xenophon,  and  various  emendations  of  the  text 
have   been  proposed  by  modern   editors.      Her- 


NOTES.  141 

mann,  after  various  attempts,  practically  gives  the 
passage  up ;  and  so  far  no  satisfactory  explanation 
or  emendation  has  been  offered.  I  have  endeav- 
oured to  translate  the  Greek  exactly  as  I  found 
it.  If  the  Greek  text  is  as  Xenophon  wrote  it,  I 
cheerfully  admit  that  any  absurdity  in  the  trans- 
lation is  due  to  my  own  misunderstanding  of  the 
Greek  rather  than  to  any  ignorance  on  the  part 
of  Xenophon.  It  should  also  be  observed  that 
the  lead  recommended  (with  the  left)  is  not  the 
favourite  lead  to-day. 

The  walk,  trot,  and  gallop  are  the  only  gaits 
mentioned  in  Greek  authors.  The  amble  or  pace 
was  certainly  unknown  to  them  until  after  the  time 
of  Aristotle,  who  says  (-n-epl  ^wwv  Tropetas;  14)  that 
if  a  horse  moves  the  two  legs  on  the  same  side  at 
the  same  time,  he  must  fall.  Still  it  will  be  observed 
that  on  the  Orvieto  vase  (see  cut  facing  p.  76)  the 
horses  are  all  moving  in  this  manner.  But  as 
Korte  shows  (A.  Z.  1880,  p.  181),  this  had  be- 
come the  conventionalized  manner  of  representing 
the  motion  of  the  horse.  It  is  found  in  Assyrian 
and  Egyptian  art,  and  from  thence  passed  to  the 
Phoenician  and  the  archaic  Greek,  where  it  is  the 
regular  rule,  although  some  exceptions  are  found. 
It  appears  on  coins  down  to  the  best  period,  and 
on  red-figured  vases  of  the  more  severe  type.  It 
was,  therefore,  not  intended  to  represent  a  natural 
gait  in  the  animal.     Pliny   (N.  H.  8,  166)  men- 


142        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

tions  a  Spanish  breed  of  horses  whose  natural  gait 
was  the  amble,  and  adds  that  this  led  to  the  belief 
that  the  trot  was  in  all  breeds  an  acquired  gait. 

44.  (Page  46.)  The  Greek  spur  had  no  rowels, 
but  was  merely  a  small  goad  fastened  to  the  heel 
by  straps  which  passed  over  the  instep  and  under 
the  sole.  Such  spurs  have  been  found  in  Olympia 
and  in  Magna  Graecia,  and  are  represented  in 
vase-paintings.  A  book  on  the  development  of 
the  spur,  with  many  beautiful  plates,  is  ''  Der  Sporn 
in  seiner  Formen-entwicklung,"  Zchille  und  Forrer, 
Berlin,  1891. 

45.  (Page  47.)  The  Odrysians  were  a  Thracian 
tribe,  whose  power,  once  extending  from  the  Stry- 
mon  to  Abdera,  declined  at  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century  b.  c. 

46.  (Page  47.)  This  seems  at  first  sight  a  device 
entirely  unworthy  of  a  horseman,  and  Berenger 
strongly  condemns  it ;  but  it  is  evident,  from  what 
follows,  that  Xenophon's  intention  was  not  to 
recommend  one  to  support  himself  by  the  mane, 
but  to  prevent  the  beginner  (this  book  was  written 
for  "  the  younger  of  his  friends  ")  from  disturbing 
the  horse  in  his  leap  by  jerking  at  the  bit.  The 
context   shows  that   it  was  with  the    bridle-hand 

(thus  kept  motionless)  that  the  mane  was  to  be 
grasped.  The  expression  "  it  is  not  a  bad  thing  " 
is   probably   purposely   selected ;    and   Xenophon 


NOTES.  143 

does  not  here  say,  as  usual  in  this  book,  "  it  is 
well."  Of  course  a  practised  rider  would  need 
no  such  help  as  the  mane  to  keep  his  hand  quiet. 
On  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon  the  rider  who  has 
his  right  hand  on  his  horse's  head  is  merely  sooth- 
ing the  excited  animal  (see  cut  facing  p.  89) . 

47.  (Page  48.)  As  Jacobs  observes,  the  rule  is 
a  good  one,  but  the  reason  given  for  it  (and 
repeated  by  Pollux,  i,  206)  seems  to  be  exactly 
the  reverse  of  the  truth.  The  horse,  as  a  rule,  pre- 
fers familiar  places,  and  after  constant  riding  over 
one  road  it  will  be  found  very  difficult  to  make 
him  go  elsewhere. 

48.  (Page  48.)  For  instance,  on  Xenophon's 
estate  in  Scillus  they  hunted  deer,  wild  boars,  and 
gazelles ;  among  other  animals,  hares,  bears,  and 
wolves  are  frequently  mentioned  as  hunted  in 
Greece.  The  hunt  was  one  of  the  principal 
amusements  of  both  Greeks  and  Romans,  as  it 
had  been  of  earlier  nations.  Much  information 
on  the  subject  will  be  found  in  Xenophon's 
'•  Cynegeticus,"  though  the  work  treats  chiefly  of 
dogs  and  hounds,  and  in  the  treatise  of  the  same 
name  by  Arrian. 

49.  (Page  52.)  The  words  in  brackets  are,  as 
Cobet  pointed  out,  a  stupid  interpolation,  adding 
nothing  to  what  has  been  said  already. 


144       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

50.  (Page  53.)   On  the  bits  see  note  53. 

51.  (Page  54.)  "Chirrup"  is  here  used,  for 
want  of  a  better  word,  to  translate  iroirTrva-^o^,  a 
noise  made  by  the  lips  alone.  It  is  used  of  a 
kiss  (Anthologia  Palatina,  v,  245  and  285),  and 
therefore  does  not  mean  ''  whistling,"  as  it  is  gen- 
erally translated  here.  The  sound  is  familiar  to 
every  rider,  but  we  use  it  now  to  start  a  horse. 
By  "  clucking,"  KXwy/xos,  is  meant  the  sound 
made  by  the  tongue  against  the  roof  of  the 
mouth. 

52.  (Page  54.)  This  advice  looks  as  though 
Xenophon  were  hurried,  or  as  if  a  lazy  horse  were 
too  distasteful  a  subject  for  him  to  treat.  He 
could  not  have  meant  it  to  be  followed  to  the 
letter. 

53.  (Page  56.)  There  is  no  evidence  for  a 
curb-chain  on  a  Greek  bit,  and  hence  Greek  bits 
had  no  leverage.  The  reins  in  every  case  acted 
directly  on  the  mouthpiece  of  the  bit.  Nor  do 
we  hear  of  two  bits  used  at  the  same  time,  nor  of 
two  sets  of  reins.  In  this  passage  Xenophon 
recommends  two  kinds  of  bits,  —  the  smooth  and 
the  rough ;  but  it  is  evident  from  his  language 
that  these  were  not  the  only  kinds  used  in  his  day. 
Here,  however,  I  am  concerned  only  with  these 
two.  What  constituted  the  smoothness  of  the  one 
and  the  roughness  of  the  other?     Certainly  not 


NOTES.  145 

the  discs  (rpoxoL)  ;  for  they  were  used  on  both 
kinds,  and  were  actually  smaller  on  the  rough  than 
on  the  smooth.  Evidently,  therefore,  the  differ- 
ence lay  in  the  nature  of  the  "  echini ;  "  this  word, 
the  plural  of  ''echinus,"  I  have  felt  it  necessary  to 
transfer  from  the  Greek  bodily,  for  we  have  none 
in  English  which  will  exactly  express  its  meaning 
here.  The  word  in  Greek,  e^a'c?,  means  "sea- 
urchin  ; "  therefore  the  contrivance  upon  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  bit  was  probably  round,  and 
had  on  its  edges  prickly  spines,  such  as  we  see 
on  the  edges  of  the  sea-urchin's  shell.  In  the 
rough  bit  these  spines  were  sharp;  Xenophon's 
language  suggests  that  there  were  echini  on  the 
smooth  bit,  but  that  their  spines  in  this  case  were 
not  sharp.  Fortunately,  light  is  thrown  on  this 
subject  by  a  bit  which  has  actually  come  down  to 
us  from  antiquity.  This  bit  (see  cut,  p.  50)  was 
found  on  the  Acropolis  of  Athens  in  1SS8,  when 
the  wall  and  other  works  of  Cimon  were  in  course 
of  excavation.  It  lay  among  the  debris  used  as 
filling  at  the  time  of  these  works.  The  bit  is 
therefore  very  old,  dating  back  nearly,  if  not  quite^ 
to  the  time  of  the  Persian  wars,  490-479  b.  c.  I 
take  the  picture,  with  part  of  my  description,  from 
an  article  by  Lechat  in  the  "  Bulletin  de  Cor- 
respondance  Hellenique,"  1890,  p.  385.  The 
mouthpiece  is  jointed,  and  the  reins  were  attached 
to  the  large  rings  at   each  end.     What  appear  to- 


146       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

be  branches  are  not  like  the  branches  of  our  curb- 
bits  ;  for  they  did  not  serve  to  support  a  curb- 
chain,  nor  was  a  rein  attached  to  them.  They 
were  fastened  to  the  cheek-pieces  of  the  bridle, 
and  merely  kept  the  mouth-piece  in  place.  Each 
cheek-piece  divided  into  two  straps,  just  before 
reaching  the  bit,  to  which  they  were  attached 
at  the  two  small  holes  in  each  branch.  This 
arrangement  for  attaching  the  bit  was  a  very  old 
one ;  it  may  be  seen  on  many  Assyrian  reliefs 
(see  cut  facing  p.  145)  and  on  some  Greek  vases 
(see  cuts  on  pp.  20,  23,  27,  39).*  See  also  the 
Dodona  statuette,  p.  44.  These  pictures  show 
that  the  branches  lay  close  against  the  sides  of  the 
mouth ;  in  the  picture  of  the  Acropolis  bit  (and  in 
that  of  the  Carapanos  bit  below)  the  perspective  is 
misleading.  It  is  evident  that  no  leverage  was 
to  be  had  from  such  branches.  We  cannot  tell 
whether  the  bit  which  Xenophon  had  in  mind 
was  attached  in  this  way  or  not ;  he  himself  says 
nothing,  and  such  branches  are  altogether  wanting 

*  On  this  subject,  see  an  article  in  the  "  Revue 
Archeologique,"  1888,  p.  52,  where  it  is  shown  that  a 
prehistoric  bit  found  in  Switzerland  and  one  found  in 
the  Caucasus  region  were  attached  in  the  same  way 
as  above  described.  The  latter  almost  exactly  re- 
sembles the  Acropolis  bit ;  the  former  has  no  echini, 
but  is  a  mere  twisted  snaffle.  In  treating  the  bit,  I 
do  not  think  it  safe  to  use  the  illustradons  given  in 
Montfaucon  or  in  Jacobs. 


NOTES.  147 

in  many  works  of  art.  But  to  return  to  the 
echini.  Each  part  of  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
Acropolis  bit  has  httle  spines  on  it ;  but  these 
spines  are  rounded  and  not  sharp.  Further,  to 
judge  from  Lechat's  description,  they  rise  directly 
from  the  mouthpiece  itself,  and  not  from  a  cylin- 
der put  on  about  the  mouthpiece.  But  we  know 
that  the  echini  were  not  always  actually  part  of 
the  mouthpiece ;  we  might  infer  that  they  were 
not,  from  Xenophon's  remark  about  "all  the 
parts  put  on  round  the  joints ;  "  and  this  infer- 
ence is  made  certain  by  the  construction  of 
another  ancient  bit  (cut  on  p.  60).  This  bit, 
also  described  by  Lechat,  is  in  the  Carapanos 
collection  of  bronzes ;  but  unfortunately  its  coun- 
try of  origin  and  its  age  are  unknown.  Like 
the  other,  it  is  jointed  ;  but  each  half  of  the  mouth- 
piece forms  an  axis  about  which  play  an  echinus 
and  a  large  disc,  the  latter  being  biconvex  like  a 
lens.  The  spines  of  the  echini  are  very  sharp. 
The  discs  are  evidently  what  Xenophon  calls  the 
rpoxoL.  But  in  this  bit  we  have  a  combination 
which  he  does  not  recommend ;  that  is,  we  have 
"good-sized"  discs,  whereas  he  says  that  with 
sharp  echini  the  discs  should  be  heavy,  but  not 
so  high  as  they  are  when  used  on  the  smooth  bits. 
It  is  inconceivable,  however,  that  the  discs  should 
ever  have  been  higher  than  these.  This  bit  was 
attached  to  the  cheek-pieces  by  the  small  rings  on 


148       XENOPHON   ON  HORSEMANSHIP. 

the  branches ;  the  reins  were  fastened  to  the  large 
hooks  which  play  about  the  axes  of  the  mouth- 
piece. The  branches  are  very  large  ;  I  know  of 
only  one  parallel  for  them  in  art,  on  a  vase  pub- 
lished in  the  '^  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,"  1890, 
plate  2,  fig.  6,  and  possibly  on  the  coin  in  the  cut 
on  p.  26. 

Now,  it  is  clear  that  neither  of  these  bits  corre- 
sponds exactly  to  Xenophon's  description.  But 
from  them  I  have,  I  believe,  got  a  clearer  idea  of 
what  he  meant  than  is  to  be  had  from  any  of  the 
commentators  on  his  book.  The  horse,  we  gather 
from  Xenophon,  was  to  be  trained  on  the  rough 
bit ;  hence  the  discs  were  low  and  heavy,  probably 
like  the  rollers  used  on  some  modern  curb-bits. 
The  sharp  echini  acted  on  the  "  bars "  of  the 
horse  if  he  attempted  to  seize  the  bit.  When  he 
had  been  taught  his  lesson,  the  smooth  bit  was 
substituted.  Here  the  echini  wxre  rounded, 
so  that  they  merely  suggested  punishment  without 
really  inflicting  it.  But  to  prevent  him  from 
getting  so  used  to  the  smooth  bit  as  not  to  mind 
it,  large  discs  were  put  on,  "  to  make  him  keep  his 
jaws  apart  and  drop  the  bit."  These  discs  were 
between  the  bars  and  the  tongue,  on  each  side ; 
and,  these  once  understood,  we  see  why  the  horse 
is  represented  with  his  mouth  open  in  nearly  all 
Greek  works  of  art. 

Xenophon  does  not  recognize  a  bit  consisting  of 


NOTES. 


149 


a  single  piece  of  metal  (though  the  Greeks  may 
have  had  such  bits),  but  always  speaks  of  one  that 
is  jointed.  His  expression,  "stiff  bit,"  therefore, 
applies  to  one  in  which  the  parts  —  the  joints, 
discs,  and  echini  —  do  not  play  easily  about 
each  other,  either  from  rust,  or  because  the  parts 
are  too  tight. 

That  numerous  other  kinds  of  bits,  and  varia- 
tions upon  these  two  kinds,  were  known  to  the 
ancients,  is  evident  from  the  classical  writers,  from 
Pollux,  and  from  works  of  art.  For  example,  the 
modern  roller-bit  is  found  in  the  mouth  of  Alexan- 
der's horse  (cut  on  p.  69),  if  one  may  trust  the 
large  engraving  in  the  "Bronzi  di  Ercolano,"  ii, 
p.  339.  There  are  also  in  the  Naples  Museum 
a  number  of  bits,  of  which  I  have  seen  photo- 
graphs. None  of  them  exactly  resemble  the  bit 
described  by  Xenophon,  though  several  approach 
it  in  details.  The  whole  subject  is  a  good  field 
for  closer  investigation,  and  little  confidence  can 
be  placed  in  the  statements  found  in  the  ordinary 
books  on  antiquities. 

54.  (Page  58.)  The  device  of  hanging  Httle 
rings  from  the  middle  of  the  bit  is  familiar  in 
modern  times. 

55.  (Page  61.)  As,  for  instance,  in  the  Pana- 
thenaic  festival.  The  frieze  of  the  Parthenon 
represents  the  parade  on  this  occasion.     A  com- 


I50       XENOPHON  ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

ment  by  Beule  will  be  found  interesting  here 
(L'Acropole  d'Athenes,  2,  p.  160)  :  ''La  troupe 
s'avance  au  galop,  par  un  mouvement  plein 
d'ensemble,  mais  d'une  allure  retenue  et  qui  n'a 
rien  d'imp^tueux.  Les  chevaux  semblent  galoper 
sur  place,  ou  plutot  se  cabrer  gracieusement. 
Si  Ton  veut  une  description  du  cheval  du  Parthe- 
non, qu'on  lise  le  onzieme  chapitre  du  traits 
d'equitation.  Le  type  ideal  que  cherche  X^no- 
phon,  Phidias  I'a  constamment  copi^.  La  race 
thessalienne  offre  encore  aujourd'hui  une  certaine 
ressemblance  avec  les  bas-reliefs  de  la  frise." 

56.  (Page  62.)  That  is,  of  course,  when  the  fore- 
legs are  raised  in  the  movement  described  in  the 
next  sentence,  the  "  demi-pesade."  By  "  loin  " 
here  he  means  the  hollow  on  each  side  below  the 
ribs,  —  the  flanks. 

57.  (Page  6;^.)  Xenophon  refers  to  the  phylarch 

and  hipparch,  respectively.     See  p.  75. 

58.  (Page  64.)   See  cut  on  p.  61. 

59.  (Page  65.)  The  cuirass  ordinarily  consisted 
of  two  metal  plates  made  to  fit  the  body,  one  pro- 
tecting the  breast  and  abdomen,  and  the  other 
the  back.  They  were  hinged  on  one  side,  and 
buckled  on  the  other.  They  were  further  kept  in 
place  by  leathern  straps  or  bands  of  metal,  passing 
over  the  shoulders  from  behind  and  fastened  in 


NOTES.  151 

front  and  by  the  belt.  About  the  lower  part  of 
the  cuirass  was  a  series  of  flaps  of  leather  or  felt, 
covered  with  metal,  but  flexible,  protecting  the 
hips  and  groin  without  interfering  with  freedom  of 
movement  (see  cuts  on  pp.  19  and  69).  There 
were  also  similar  flaps  at  the  right  shoulder  to 
protect  the  part  of  the  body  which  was  left 
exposed  when  the  arm  was  raised  to  hurl  the 
javelin  or  to  strike  with  the  sword.  But  even 
in  the  time  of  Xenophon,  a  sort  of  scale  armour 
was  not  unknown,  the  metallic  scales  being  fas- 
tened to  a  cuirass  of  felt.  On  the  frieze  of  the 
Parthenon  one  of  the  riders  wears  a  combina- 
tion of  plate  and  scale  armour,  the  breast  and 
back  being  covered  by  plates  which  are  joined 
at  the  sides  by  scale  armour.  Of  course  all  parts 
of  the  cuirass  were  often  elaborately  ornamented. 
Xenophon's  insistence  on  the  point  that  the 
cuirass  should  be  made  to  fit  the  individual 
reminds  one  of  the  conversation  reported  by  him 
in  the  "Memorabilia"  (3,  10,  9  ff.)  between 
Socrates  and  a  cuirass- maker. 

60.  (Page  65.)  The  neck-piece  is  rarely  seen 
in  art,  but  is  found  on  certain  reliefs  from  Perga- 
mon  (Altertiimer  von  Pergamon,  ii,  43,  44,  2,  and 
47,  2).  It  comes  up  between  the  shoulder-straps, 
and  is  at  the  back  of  the  neck,  not  at  the  front. 
So  in  the  statuette  of  the  Etruscan  warrior,  called 
the    Mars    of  Todi ;    see    Baumeister,  taf.  Ixxxix. 


152        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

But  a  cuirass  with  the  neck-piece  extending  all 
the  way  round  has  been  found  at  Grenoble 
(Baumeister,  p.  2044),  and  is  represented  on  the 
coin  which  serves  as  the  tail- piece  to  Chapter  I 
(p.  19).  It  is  probable  that  this  piece  was  an 
Eastern  device,  suggested  to  Xenophon  during  his 
campaign  in  Persia,  and  not  generally  adopted  in 
Greece. 

61.  (Page  66.)  It  is  impossible  to  say  what 
Xenophon  meant  by  a  Boeotian  helmet.  There 
were  two  principal  types  of  Greek  helmets,  —  the 
Corinthian  and  the  Attic,  to  be  seen  on  the  head 
of  Athene  on  the  coins  of  Corinth  and  Athens 
respectively.  The  Corinthian,  having  a  nose-piece 
and  immovable  cheek-pieces,  was  the  more  com- 
plete protection.  The  Athenian  generally  had 
cheek-pieces,  always  movable,  however,  so  that 
they  could  be  turned  up,  leaving  the  face  free. 
These  do  not  always  appear  on  the  coins.  Both 
helmets  protected  the  nape  of  the  neck.  But  as 
Xenophon  has  provided  for  the  protection  of  the 
throat  by  a  special  piece  rising  from  the  cuirass, 
he  can  scarcely  mean  the  Corinthian  helmet  which 
covers  this  part  pretty  effectually ;  and  his  descrip- 
tion would  conform  even  less  closely  to  the  Attic 
type. 

62.  (Page  66.)  Examples  (but  not  of  Greek 
origin)  of  this  flexible  piece  of  armour  have  been 


NOTES.  153 

found  at  Olympia  and  at  Pergamon  (Curtius  and 
Adler,  Olympia,  tafelband  iv ;  Altertlimer  von 
Pergamon,  ii,  taf.  43).  It  was  made  of  strips  of 
metal,  lapping  over  each  other  like  the  fingers 
of  a  mediaeval  gauntlet.  See  also  Baumeister, 
Denkmaler,  p.  2028. 

63.  (Page  66.)  Greaves  were  made  of  elastic 
metal,  lined  with  felt  or  leather,  and  were  snapped 
about  the  leg  below  the  knee  and  then  fastened 
behind  with  straps  or  buckles.  Such  a  piece  is 
here  recommended  to  fit  the  right  arm  ;  and  on  the 
analogy  of  the  leg-greave  I  suppose  that  it  was 
intended  for  the  part  of  the  arm  below  the  elbow. 

64.  (Page  67.)  That  is,  the  part  near  the 
shoulder  and  the  armpit ;  this  is  left  unprotected 
by  the  unfolding  of  the  flaps  mentioned  above. 

65.  (Page  67.)  The  armour  here  prescribed  for 
the  horse  is  not  Greek,  but  Oriental.  We  find  no 
evidence  of  its  use  in  Greece  in  the  art  or  litera- 
ture of  the  fifth  century.  Xenophon,  doubtless, 
became  acquainted  with  it  during  the  Expedition 
of  the  Ten  Thousand,  approved  it  and  desired  its 
introduction  into  Greece.  It  was  introduced  to  a 
Hmited  extent  in  the  fourth  century.  But  there  is 
nothing  in  art  to  explain  how  the  thigh- armour  of 
the  horse  protected  the  rider's  legs. 

66.  (Page  67.)  Here  the  Greek  word  is  e-n-oxov; 
but  just  before  and  in  chapter  seven  (see  note  42) 


154        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

the  usual  word  for  the  cloth,  k4>L7r7nov,  is  used.  It 
is  not  certain  what  the  difference  was  between  the 
two ;  but  probably,  as  Schheben  thinks,  the  e-n-oxov 
was  more  extensive  ;  and  was  padded  or  quilted 
(see  the  great  Pompeian  mosaic  of  the  battle  of 
Issus)  ;  perhaps  it  was  continued  under  the  belly. 

•  67.  (Page  67.)  Such  boots  may  be  seen  on  the 
frieze  of  the  Parthenon  and  on  the  Orvieto  vase 
(cut  facing  p.  76). 

68.  (Page  67.)  The  words  "sword,"  "sabre,"  and 
"  scimitar  "  are  used  only  as  approximations  here. 
The  Greek  swords  of  all  sorts  were  much  shorter 
than  ours;  and  the  two  latter  forms  resembled 
curved  butcher' s-knives  rather  than  swords,  in  our 
sense  of  the  word. 

69.  (Page  6S.)  See  the  Orvieto  vase  (cut  facing 
p.  76). 

70.  (Page  6S.)  The  "  Hipparchicus,"  or  "  Cav- 
alry General;  "  see  p.  71. 

71.  (Page  74.)  There  are  only  three  passages, 
and  two  of  them  (Iliad,  15,  679;  Odyssey,  5, 
371)  are  in  similes;  hence  they  may  and  doubt- 
less do  refer,  not  to  the  heroic  period  in  which 
the  scene  of  the  poem  was  laid,  but  to  the  later 
time  when  the  verses  were  written.     The  third  is 


NOTES.  155 

the  only  passage  in  which  heroes  are  actually 
described  as  riding  on  horseback  (Iliad,  10,  513)  ; 
but  this  is  in  the  Dolopeia,  universally  admitted 
to  be  the  latest  part  of  the  Iliad  in  order  of 
composition.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  accepted 
as  evidence  in  the  face  of  the  general  practice  of 
driving,  found  everywhere  else  in  heroic  scenes. 

As  my  book  is  concerned  only  with  the  later 
practice  of  riding,  there  is  no  need  to  discuss  the 
very  obscure  question  of  the  introduction  of  the 
horse  into  Greece,  shadowed  forth  as  it  may  or 
may  not  have  been  by  the  myths  of  Pegasus,  the 
Centaurs,  Erechtheus,  and  Poseidon.  According 
to  Pietr^ment  (whom  I  quote  at  second-hand, 
having  never  seen  his  book,  as  I  remarked  in  my 
preface),  no  fossil  remains  of  horses  have  been 
found  in  Greece ;  and  the  animal  was  certainly 
introduced  thither,  though  the  route  is  unknown. 

72.  (Page  76.)  The  price  of  the  horse  branded 
with  the  letter  Koppa,  in  Aristophanes'  "Clouds," 
20.  The  exact  significance  of  this  and  other 
brands  is  unknown,  save  that  horses  thus  branded 
were  of  more  than  ordinary  value.  See  cut  on 
p.  184,  and  its  description. 

73.  (Page  84.)  See  Pliny,  N.  H.  35,  95  ;  Aelian, 
V.  H.  2,  3. 

74.  (Page  85.)  'Pseudo-Lucian,  Dem.  Encom., 
24;  Aelian,  V.  H.  14,  15. 


156        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

75.  (Page  85.)  Aelian,  H.  A.  4,  50;  Pollux, 
2,  69. 

76.  (Page  87.)  The  description  by  Vegetius 
(fifth  century)  in  the  "  Mulomedicina,"  4,  6  (6,  6) 
is  of  a  particular  breed,  and  that  not  a  Greek  one. 
Isidorus,  Origines,  12,  i,  45  (seventh  century), 
and  Pollux,  i,  188  ff.  (second  century)  are  mere 
compilers,  adding  nothing  in  this  matter  to  the 
knowledge  which  we  have  from  other  sources. 

77.  (Page  93.)  Light  may  come  from  another 
direction.  We  find  now  and  then  that  the  manes 
of  horses  were  shorn  as  a  sign  of  mourning.  This 
was  done  by  Persians  on  the  death  of  Mardonius 
(Hdt.  9,  24),  and  by  Greeks  on  the  deaths  of 
Pelopidas  and  Hephaestion  (Plutarch,  Pelopidas, 
33  ;  Alexander,  72).  In  the  Alcestis  of  Euripides, 
428  ff.,  the  bereaved  husband  orders  all  his  subjects 
to  shear  the  manes  of  their  horses. 

78.  (Page  94.)  Not  a  Homeric  fashion,  however, 
(see  e.g.  Iliad,  17,  439).  It  was  intermediate 
between  the  Heroic  and  the  Classical  Age. 

79.  (Page  98.)   See  Pliny,  N.  H.  8,  156  f. 

80.  (Page  99.)  The  horse  Xanthus  and  his  mate 
wept  for  the  death  of  Patroclus ;  but  their  grief 
was  not  appreciated  by  the  charioteer  Automedon 
(Iliad,  17,  426  ff.). 


NOTES. 


157 


81.  (Page  ioi.)  Our  information  comes  from 
Plutarch,  Life  of  Alexander,  6 ;  32;  61; 
Morals,  p.  970  D;  Arrian,  Anabasis,  5,  14,  4; 
19,  4  ff. ;  Strabo,  p.  698;  Gellius,  5,  2;  Geopo- 
nics,  16,  2;  Curtius,  6,  5,  18;  9,  3,  23;  Pliny, 
N.  H.  8,  154;  Aelian,  V.  H.  2,  3. 

82.  (Page  ioi.)  See  xAristophanes,  frag.  41, 
Kock. 


ON   THE   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


TN  making  selections  from  the  antique  for  the 
-*-  pictures  in  this  book,  I  have  been  guided,  not 
so  much  by  the  interest  or  beauty  of  the  originals, 
considered  as  works  of  art,  as  by  their  usefulness 
in  explaining  or  illustrating  the  various  subjects 
which  have  been  treated  in  the  foregoing  pages. 
So,  too,  the  following  brief  notes  are  not  written 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  art-critic,  an  office 
to  which  I  do  not  pretend ;  but  in  them  I  have 
given  the  immediate  source  from  which  each  illus- 
tration is  taken,  the  museum  or  collection  in 
which  the  object  itself  is  to  be  seen  to-day,  and, 
wherever  possible,  the  time  of  its  production,  and 
the  place  where  it  was  found.     I  have  mentioned. 


l6o        XENOPHON   ON    HORSEMANSHIP. 

also,  the  points  in  each  work  which  led  me  to 
choose  it  for  the  purposes  of  this  book.  Without 
too  great  presumption  I  may  venture  to  remark 
that  but  few,  if  any,  of  the  Classics,  except  Homer, 
have  been  thus  closely  and  fully  illustrated  from 
ancient  art.  The  present  attempt  may  serve  to 
show  what  an  opportunity  there  is  in  this  direction. 

FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Frontispiece.  Bronze  head  in  the  Uffizi,  Flor- 
ence, No.  426  of  the  bronzes  in  the  collection  in 
that  gallery.  From  a  photograph.  The  work  was 
found  near  Civita  Vecchia,  and  was  sent  from 
Rome  to  Florence  in  1585,  according  to  the 
catalogue  of  the  Uffizi  gallery.  The  time  of  its 
production  is  unknown.  Originally  there  was  a 
bridle  on  the  head ;  the  mouthpiece  of  the  bit 
still  remains.  This  head  has  the  ears  wide  apart, 
leaving  the  poll  large  (see  p.  17)  ;  and  it  therefore 
illustrates  the  type  of  beauty  which  gave  rise  to 
the  term  l3ovKicf>aXo<;  (see  note  12.  p.  125). 

Page  17.  From  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon,  a 
work  completed  about  440  b.  c.  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Phidias  (see  pp.  84  and  97).  From  a 
photograph  in  "Masterpieces  of  Antique  Art,"  by 
S.  Thompson.  Although  this  slab  is  not  in  as 
perfect  a  state  of  preservation  as  are  some  of  the 
others,  yet  it  has  always  been  among  the   most 


ON  THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  l6l 

admired  for  the  grace,  action,  and  truth  to  nature 
of  its  figures.  The  horses  seem  to  illustrate  exactly 
the  type  preferred  by  Xenophon  in  his  first  chapter 
(see  also  p.  89).  For  the  costume  of  the  riders 
see  the  remarks  on  p.  163. 

Page  41.  Fragment  of  a  sixth-century  monu- 
ment in  honour  of  an  Athenian  warrior  of  a  time 
much  earlier  than  the  Persian  wars.  From  "  Die 
Attischen  Grabreliefs,"  Conze,  i,  taf.  9.  The 
original  is  in  the  Barracco  collection  in  Rome ; 
Conze  took  his  engraving  from  a  cast  in  Stras- 
burg.  The  complete  work  was  a  tall,  narrow  stele, 
like  the  well-known  stele  of  Aristion.  On  the 
upper  part  was  represented  the  dead  man,  armed 
probably  as  a  hoplite ;  only  his  feet  and  the  butt 
of  his  spear  remain.  Below,  in  what  is  called  the 
KprjTTi^  of  the  monument,  is  a  young  horseman, 
holding  the  reins  in  his  left  hand  and  in  his  right 
two  javelins ;  he  is  armed  also  with  a  short, 
straight  sword.  It  should  be  remembered  that 
the  two  reins  are  often  represented  on  the  same 
side  in  early  art,  so  that  this  relief  does  not  prove 
the  existence  of  two  sets  of  reins  (see  note  53, 
p.  144).  The  reins  must  be  supposed  to  be 
attached  directly  to  the  bit;  there  is  here  no 
representation  of  branches,  but  such  details  are 
often  neglected  in  art.  This  rider,  however, 
carries  two  javelins ;  and  yet  Xenophon  in  his 
twelfth    chapter    (p.    68)    speaks    as    if   he    were 


1 62       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

recommending  something  entirely  new  in  suggest- 
ing the  use  of  two  javehns  instead  of  one  spear. 
But  the  technique  of  this  work  shows  that  the 
rider  is  of  a  time  long  before  Xenophon ;  further, 
on  a  number  of  early  vase-paintings  (see  for 
instance  pp.  30  and  65),  two  javelins  are  carried 
by  cavaliers.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  explana- 
tion has  been  offered  of  this  apparent  contradic- 
tion. When  it  is  remembered,  however,  that  the 
Athenians  had  no  regularly  organized  body  of 
cavalry  before  the  Persian  wars  (see  p.  75),  it 
may  be  thought  that  after  the  organization  of  the 
force  it  was  armed  merely  with  one  spear;  and 
that  in  the  transition  state  before  this  organization, 
hoplites,  when  mounted  for  some  special  purpose, 
carried  two.  Thus,  the  present  monument  may 
have  represented  the  dead  warrior  serving  in  two 
capacities,  —  on  foot  and  as  a  mounted  hoplite. 
It  is  true  that  the  rider  in  the  Lamptrae  relief 
(facing  p.  68)  carries  but  one  spear;  and  so  the 
custom  probably  varied  before  the  knights  were 
organized. 

Page  6S.  Part  of  a  fragment  of  a  monument 
found  in  the  Attic  deme  of  Lamptrae,  and  now  in 
Athens.  From  the  "  Mittheilungen  des  deutschen 
arch.  Instituts  in  Athen,"  xii,  taf.  2.  A  work  of 
perhaps  a  little  after  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century.  See  the  remarks  just  above,  and  note 
that   the   regular  Athenian   cavalry  did  not  carry 


ON  THE  ILLUSTRATIONS.  163 

shields.  The  rider  wears  the  usual  short  mantle. 
The  horse  is  a  much  better  animal  than  the  one 
represented  in  the  plate  just  treated ;  on  his  gait 
see  p.  141.  x\nother  horse  is  led  at  the  left 
as  the  outlines  show.  This  is  not  uncommon 
in  art. 

Page  76.  From  an  Attic  cylix,  or  cup,  found  at 
Orvieto,  in  Central  Italy,  described  and  illustrated 
by  G.  Korte  in  the  "  Archaologische  Zeitung," 
1880,  taf.  15.  It  is  now  in  the  Berlin  Museum. 
The  picture  represents  the  examination  for  admis- 
sion to  the  Athenian  cavalry,  the  BoKLfiaa-La  (see 
p.  76).  At  the  left,  just  below  the  handle  of  the 
cup,  is  a  bearded  man  seated  under  a  tree,  with  a 
stylus  and  a  writing-tablet  in  his  hands.  In  front 
of  him  stands  a  man  with  a  long  staff  (the  cup  is 
here  broken).  Towards  them  are  approaching 
three  young  men,  dressed  alike,  not  in  armour,  but 
in  the  usual  gala  or  parade  costume  of  the  cavalry, 
—  a  chlamys,  or  short  cloak,  buckled  at  the 
shoulder ;  a  petasus,  or  broad-brimmed  hat ;  and 
KoOopvoL,  or  high  riding-boots  (actually,  the  artist 
has  represented  these  boots  only  in  the  case  of  the 
second  rider).  Each  brings  up  his  horse  by  a 
leading-rein  (see  note  38,  p.  138),  not  by  the 
bridle  (see  note  34,  p.  136)  ;  the  bridles  in  fact 
are  here  left  to  the  imagination,  and  the  leading- 
rein  is  supposed  to  be  attached  to  the  chin-strap 
or  nose-band.     In  the  cut  on  p.  39  the  bridle-rein 


1 64       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

and  the  leading-rein  are  distinguished,  the  thick 
dark  streak  representing  the  latter.  The  horses, 
Korte  thinks,  are  not  represented  in  a  natural 
gait  (see  p.  141)  j  yet  perhaps  not  much  evidence 
on  this  point  can  be  got  from  a  representation 
of  horses  moving  at  a  walk  (see  p.  163).  Each 
man  carries  two  javelins  (see  p.  162).  The  horses 
have  long  tails,  long  forelocks  (see  p.  32),  and 
hogged  manes  (see  p.  93).  Behind  the  first 
horse  stands  a  young  man  (also  under  a  tree), 
with  a  peculiar  staff  having  a  crook  at  the  upper 
end.  This  man  may  be  the  hipparch  or  the 
phylarch  (see  p.  75)  of  the  troop  undergoing 
examination,  for  we  know  that  young  men  were 
chosen  to  these  offices.  Finally,  behind  the 
third  horse  stands  a  bearded  man  with  a  staff  of 
office.  The  two  upright  bearded  men  are  doubt- 
less the  examining  committee  of  the  Senate  ;  the 
seated  man  is  their  secretary.  The  first  knight  is 
actually  in  course  of  examination,  as  his  upright 
and  attentive  position  shows ;  the  second  is  on  his 
way,  the  third  just  starting.  The  newly  discovered 
treatise  of  Aristotle  on  the  Athenian  Constitution 
gives  us  some  interesting  and  in  part  new  informa- 
tion about  this  examination  (chap.  49).  In  the 
centre  of  the  bottom  of  the  cup  is  one  of  the  two 
hundred  mounted  bowmen,  called  the  Scythians, 
employed  by  the  Athenians  as  a  sort  of  police 
force. 


ON  THE  ILLUSTRATIONS.  165 

Page  8^.  Head  of  one  of  the  horses  of  Selene, 
the  moon  goddess,  from  the  eastern  pedmient  of 
the  Parthenon,  now  in  the  British  Museum.  From 
a  photograph  in  Brunn's  "  Denkmaler  Griechischer 
und  Romischer  Skulptur,"  lief.  38.  On  the  eyes, 
see  p.  83  ;  on  the  mane,  p.  95  i  and  on  the  Bu- 
cephalus type  of  the  head,  p.  125. 

Page  89.  From  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon,  as 
engraved  in  ''  Ancient  Marbles  in  the  British 
Museum,"  viii,  pi.  18,  and  edited  by  Hawkins. 
This  group  affords  a  most  perfect  idea  of  the  type 
of  horse  approved  by  Xenophon  (see  p.  89).  I 
have  remarked,  at  the  end  of  note  46  (p.  143), 
upon  the  soothing  gesture  of  the  second  rider; 
every  foot  of  his  horse  is  raised  from  the  ground. 
The  third  rider  is  one  of  the  few  on  the  frieze  that 
wear  the  cuirass  (note  59,  p.  150)  ;  he  has  also  a 
helmet  of  the  Attic  type  with  folding  cheek-pieces 
(note  61,  p.  152),  and  wears  boots  (p.  67).  But 
the  fifth  rider  and  horse  are  the  best  of  all ;  I 
quote  Hawkins  here  :  "  Nothing  can  exceed  the 
vigour,  the  Hfe,  the  animation  which  pervades  the 
whole  horse,  bounding  from  the  earth  with 
the  very  exuberance  of  animal  spirits ;  the  mus- 
cular power  and  elasticity  with  which  he  springs 
from  the  ground  is  admirably  expressed,  as  are 
also  the  playful  pawings  of  the  forelegs  and  the 
animated  expression  of  lively  impatience  in  the 
muscles  and  positions  of  the  head  and  neck.     Nor 


1 66       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

less  to  be  admired  are  the  form  and  character  of 
the  rider,  the  easy  firmness  of  his  seat,  the 
perfect  confidence  in  his  own  powers  of  com- 
mand, his  entire  composure  and  tranquiUity  con- 
trasted with  the  sudden  and  vehement  action  of 
the  animal  beneath  him ;  and  the  grace  and 
precision  with  which  the  whole  framework  of 
his  body  is  indicated,  and  the  muscular  action 
developed." 

Page  109.  The  monument  of  Dexileus,  an 
Athenian  knight,  who  was  born,  as  the  inscription 
shows,  in  414  b.  c,  and  who  fell  in  battle  near 
Corinth  in  394.  His  youth  may  show  that  this 
was  his  first  and  last  campaign.  This  monument 
is  still  in  situ  in  the  Street  of  Tombs,  outside  the 
Dipylon  gate  of  Athens ;  near  it  are  the  stelae  of 
others  of  the  family  of  Dexileus.  He  is  in  the  act 
of  slaying  a  foeman.  For  the  purposes  of  artistic 
effect  he  is  not  in  armour.  His  weapon,  whether 
sword  or  spear,  and  the  bridle  of  his  horse  were 
doubtless  added  in  bronze.  From  a  photograph 
in  my  possession ;  the  shadow  at  the  left  is  caused 
by  a  wooden  casing,  set  about  the  monument  to 
preserve  it.  In  the  reproduction  this  casing  is 
happily  omitted. 

Page  145.  Assurbanipal  (Sardanapalus),  King 
of  Assyria  from  668  to  626  b.  c.,  hunting  wild 
asses.  From  a  photograph  of  the  alabaster  relief 
found  at  Kouyunjik,  Nineveh,  now  in  the  British 


ON  THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  16/ 

Museum.  I  have  chosen  this  picture  merely  to 
illustrate  the  way  in  which  the  rein  was  attached 
to  the  bit,  and  the  bridle  to  the  branches  (see 
p.  146).  In  the  relief  itself  (though  not  in  this 
reproduction)  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  rein 
was  fastened  to  the  little  ring. 

ILLUSTRATIONS   IN   THE   TEXT. 

Page  13.  From  Panofka's  "  Bilder  Antiker 
Lebens,"  iii,  i  ;  he  took  it  from  Tischbein,  ''  Vas 
d'Hamilton,"  i,  47.  The  painting  represents  the 
end  of  a  race  ;  the  pillar  indicating  the  goal.  On 
the  attachment  of  the  bits,  see  p.  146.  I  have 
grave  doubts  about  the  trustworthiness  of  this 
picture,  but  insert  it  for  its  Hfe  and  action.  It 
must,  if  a  correct  reproduction,  be  a  late  work. 

Page  19.  Coin  of  King  Patraos  of  Paeonia, 
340-315  B.  c.  From  a  cut  in  "  An  Illustrated 
Dictionary  to  the  Anabasis "  by  Professor  J.  W. 
White  and  the  present  writer,  who  took  it  from 
Baumeister,  p.  2030.  It  is  also  illustrated  and 
described  by  Imhoof-Blumer,  "  Monnaies  Grecs," 
taf.  c.  The  horseman,  who  is  a  Paeonian,  wears 
trousers,  and  has  an  extremely  large  crest  to  his 
helmet.  From  his  cuirass  seems  to  rise  the  neck- 
piece (note  60,  p.  151)  ;  note  also  the  flaps  about 
his  loins  (p.  66).  The  inscription  above  gives  the 
king's  name. 


1 68       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

Page  20.  Painting  on  an  Attic  vase  now  in 
Munich,  found  in  the  ancient  Etruscan  city  of 
Vulci.  From  the  '•  Archaologische  Zeitung," 
xUii,  taf.  II.  The  scene  represents  a  riding- 
lesson,  the  old  man  at  the  right  being  the  master. 
A  young  man  rides  along  leading  a  second  horse 
upon  which  his  comrade  is  about  to  leap  by  the 
use  of  a  vaulting-pole.  For  the  sake  of  symmetry 
in  the  picture  the  artist  may  have  placed  this 
person  in  front  of  the  horse  instead  of  at  the  side, 
where  he  would  naturally  stand  in  taking  such  a 
leap ;  or  it  may  be  thought  that  he  is  merely 
balancing  himself,  ready  to  spring  on  as  soon  as 
the  horse  reaches  him.  When  a  cavalryman 
mounted  by  means  of  his  spear,  he  used  only  one 
hand  for  the  spear  (see  note  41,  p.  139).  Livy 
speaks  of  the  use  of  the  spear  in  leaping  suddenly 
from  a  horse  (iv,  19,  4).  On  the  other  half  of  this 
vase,  not  shown  in  my  reproduction,  a  boy  is  lead- 
ing a  horse,  while  the  teacher  looks  on  under  a 
tree,  showing  that  this  lesson  was  given  in  the 
open  air.  The  riding-master  Pheidon,  mentioned 
in  Mnesimachus's  comedy  of  the  "  Horse-breeder," 
a  work  of  the  first  half  of  the  fourth  century,  gave 
his  lessons  in  the  agora,  near  the  Hermae  (see 
Athenaeus,  402  f.)  .  But  in  another  vase-painting 
(Daremberg  et  Saglio,  ii,  fig.  2717),  young  riders 
are  exercising  under  cover.  It  is,  therefore, 
impossible  to  say  whether  the  iTTTrao-ia  mentioned 


ON  THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  1 69 

by  Xenophon  at  the  end  of  his  seventh  chapter 
was  in  or  out  of  doors.  I  have  translated  it 
riding-ground.  In  a  different  work  (Memorabiha, 
iii,  3,  6),  Xenophon  calls  the  place  a^/xos  (the 
Latin  hareiia),  showing  that  horses  were  exercised 
upon  sand,  not  hard  ground.  The  object  hanging 
at  the  left  of  our  picture  is  an  oil-flask,  perhaps 
the  aryballos  (see  below),  used  in  the  baths  and 
wrestling-schools.  The  inscription  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  actual  scene,  but  is  an  example  of  the 
custom  whereby  the  ancient  vase-painter  dedi- 
cated, as  it  were,  his  work  to  some  friend ;  to  the 
name  was  generally  attached  the  adjective  koX6% 
(handsome),  as  here.  On  the  attachment  of  the 
horse's  bit,  see  p.  146. 

Page  22.  A  proto-Corinthian  lecythos,  of  the 
shape  sometimes  called  the  aryballos,  perhaps  of 
the  early  sixth  century.  Athletes  used  such  vases 
to  hold  their  oil  (see  above).  From  "  Die 
Griechischen  Vasen,"  Lau,  taf.  iv,  2.  The  small 
size  of  the  rider,  compared  to  his  horse,  is  note- 
worthy (see  p.  95)  ;  observ^e  also  the  thick,  long 
mane  (p.  94). 

Page  23.  From  a  vase  found  at  Nola,  in 
Campania ;  reproduced  from  Panof ka's  "  Bilder 
Antiker  Lebens,"  i,  5.  A  riding-master  (see 
p.  168)  is  helping  a  boy  to  mount.  In  Plato, 
Laches,  182  a.,  riding  is  mentioned  along  with 
gymnastics  as  proper  parts  of  the  education  of  the 


I/O       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

Athenian  gentleman.  In  another  place  he  says : 
"  We  must  mount  our  children  on  horses  in  their 
earliest  youth  and  take  them  on  horseback  to  see 
war,  in  order  that  they  may  learn  to  ride ;  the 
horses  must  not  be  spirited  and  warlike,  but  the 
most  tractable  and  yet  the  swiftest  that  can  be 
had.  In  this  way  they  will  get  an  excellent  view 
of  what  is  hereafter  to  be  their  business ;  and  if 
there  is  danger  they  have  only  to  follow  their  elder 
leaders  and  escape"  (Republic,  467  e,  Jowett's 
translation).  This  heroic  treatment,  it  must  be 
remembered,  is  Plato's  proposal  for  the  ideal  state, 
and  it  does  not  prove  that  boys  were  ever  actually 
taken  to  see  battles  by  the  Athenians.  The  great 
physician  Galen,  of  the  second  century  a.  d., 
advised  that  boys  should  begin  to  learn  to  ride  at 
the  age  of  seven  (De  val.  tuend.  i,  8 ;  ii,  9 ) . 
Such  a  boy  seems  to  be  represented  in  our  picture. 
But  probably  in  ancient  Athens  boys  began  to  ride 
between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen,  which 
were  the  years  especially  devoted  to  training  in 
gymnastics.  At  eighteen  they  were  eligible  for 
the  cavalry,  and  began  to  learn  to  use  weapons 
on  horseback.  This  picture  well  illustrates  the 
method  of  attaching  the  bit  to  the  bridle  (see 
p.  146). 

Page  26.  A  coin  of  King  Alexander  of  Mace- 
don,  498-454  B.  c,  now  in  Berlin.  From 
Baumeister,  p.  950.     Note  the  large  size  of  the 


ON   THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  I/I 

horse  compared  to  the  man  (p.  98),  his  forelock 
(p.  32),  and  hogged  mane  (p.  91  ff.).  I  have 
already  remarked  on  the  extremely  large  branches 
of  the  bit  (p.  148).  The  rider  (a  Macedonian 
of  course)  wears  the  short  cloak  adopted  by  the 
Athenian  cavalry  (p.  163),  and  the  hat  called 
caicsia,  differing  somewhat  from  the  Athenian 
petasus  (see  p.  163).  He  carries  two  spears 
(p.  162). 

Page  27.  Painting  on  a  black- figured  vase  in 
the  British  Museum,  from  Gerhard's  "  Auserlesene 
Vasenbilder,"  iv,  247.  This  is  a  Panathenaic 
vase,  intended  as  a  prize  for  the  winner  at  the 
Panathenaic  festival,  probably  at  some  time  in  the 
fourth  century.  This  side  of  the  vase  shows 
the  kind  of  contest  for  which  the  prize  was  given ; 
on  the  other  is  the  conventional  figure  of  Athene. 
The  rider  in  this  case  is  not  the  owner,  but  a 
jockey.  The  owner's  name  is  proclaimed  by  the 
man  walking  ahead,  in  the  words  AYNEIKETY : 
HIIIOS  :  NIKAI,  that  is,  "  the  horse  of  Dysnicetus 
is  the  winner."  Behind  walks  a  man  carrying  the 
prize,  a  tripod,  on  his  head.  In  his  left  hand  he 
holds  a  chaplet  of  victory ;  this,  to  my  regret,  is 
not  shown  in  the  present  reproduction. 

Page  29.  A  silver  coin  of  Maronea  in  Thrace, 
400-350  B.  c.  From  Head's  ''  Catalogue  of  the 
Greek  Coins  in  the  British  Museum,"  Thrace, 
p.  126.     This  coin  shows  the  leading-rein  (note 


172        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

38,  p.  138).     The  inscription  indicates  the  name 
of  the  town. 

Page  30.  From  a  black- figured  amphora  in 
the  Hermitage  collection,  St.  Petersburg,  illustrated 
(in  outline  merely)  in  the  "  Comte  Rendu  de  la 
Commission  Imperiale  Archeologique,"  1864,  p.  5, 
from  which  I  take  it.  The  horse  is  bending  his 
knees  to  allow  the  Amazon  to  mount  (see  p.  138). 
The  inscription  above  has  not  been  deciphered. 

Page  33.  From  Koepp's  "  Ueber  das  Bildnis 
Alexanders  des  Grossen,"  p.  3.  A  gold  medallion 
from  Tarsus,  of  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Com- 
modus,  in  the  "  Cabinet  des  medailles,"  the 
obverse  of  which  bears  a  fine  head  of  Alexander 
the  Great.  The  reverse,  in  our  picture,  shows  the 
king  hunting  a  Hon.  Professor  Emerson  has  sug- 
gested (in  the  "  American  Journal  of  Archaeology," 
1887,  p.  253)  that  for  this  medallion  was  selected 
the  central  figures  in  a  bronze  group,  called  the 
Lion  Hunt,  by  Lysippus,  dedicated  at  Delphi  by 
Craterus  (Plutarch,  Alexander,  40).  In  this  group 
were  included  hunting-dogs  and  Craterus  himself 
coming  up  to  help.  The  picture  shows  the  flaps 
at  the  shoulders  and  about  the  loins,  mentioned  by 
Xenophon  in  his  description  of  the  cuirass  (p.  66). 
A  leopard's  skin  serves  instead  of  a  cloth  (notes 
42,  p.  140,  and  66,  p.  153).  The  inscription 
means  "  King  Alexander." 

Page    34.      From    Panofka's    "Bilder   Antiker 


ON   THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  1 73 

Lebens,"  iii,  7  (also  in  colours,  a  red-figured 
vase,  in  Gerhard's  "  Auserlesene  Vasenbilder," 
iv,  272).  The  original,  found  at  Vulci,  Italy,  is 
in  the  Royal  Museum  of  Berlin.  The  picture 
shows  the  muzzle,  the  use  of  which  is  recom- 
mended by  Xenophon  whenever  a  horse  is  to  be 
led  (p.  31).  The  young  man  seems  to  be  trying 
to  avoid  the  difficulties  in  leading  horses  which 
Xenophon  mentions  (p.  35).  He  wears  the  regu- 
lar cavalry  boots  (pp.  67  and  163).  To  the  word 
ErPA<l>SEN,  painted  in  the  inscription,  is  prefixed 
(on  the  other  side  of  the  vase)  the  painter's  name, 
Epictetus.  On  the  word  KAA02,  see  p.  169. 
Another  picture,  showing  the  muzzle  in  more 
detail,  will  be  found  in  the  "  Jahrbuch  des 
deutschen  Arch.  Instituts,"  1889,  taf.  10. 

Page  38.  A  painting  on  a  red-figured  vase, 
somewhat  broken,  found  at  Orvieto,  now  in  the 
Museo  Egizio  ed  Etrusco,  Florence ;  from  the 
"  Drittes  HaUisches  Winckelmannsprogramm," 
1879,  taf.  iii,  2.  The  moon  goddess,  Selene, 
seated  on  a  bridleless  horse  which  is  grazing  or 
drinking.  This  goddess  was  first  represented  on 
horseback,  so  far  as  we  know,  by  Phidias  on  the 
pedestal  of  the  statue  of  Olympian  Zeus  (Pau- 
sanias,  v,  11,  8).  Other  female  divinities  thus 
appearing  in  ancient  art  are  Artemis,  Aurora,  and 
the  Roman  goddess  of  horses,  Epona.  But 
examples  of  mortal  women  on  horseback  are  per- 


174       XENOPHON  ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

haps  wanting  in  the  art  of  Greece  proper ;  not  so 
in  that  of  Asia  (see  for  example  the  Heroon  of 
Gjolbaschi,  a  work  of  the  fifth  century  b.  c,  and 
Daremberg  et  SagUo,  ii,  p.  751).  The  Amazons, 
to  be  sure,  are  frequently  found  on  horseback, 
riding  like  men  ;  other  females,  whether  goddesses 
or  women,  are  represented  as  women  ride  to-day, 
except  that,  so  far  as  I  know,  they  are  seated,  not 
to  the  left,  but  to  the  right  of  the  horse,  as  in  our 
picture. 

Page  39.  Painting  on  a  vase  in  the  Berlin 
Museum,  found  probably  at  Nola ;  from  the  illus- 
tration in  the  *' Archaologische  Zeitung,"  1878,  taf. 
22,  where  it  is  described  by  C.  Robert.  In  this 
picture  a  young  horseman  (on  his  costume  see 
p.  163)  is  making  his  horse  throw  forward  the  off 
forefoot  so  as  to  assume  the  position  described  by 
the  verb  vTro^ilSdC^aOaL  (see  p.  s^  ^^d  note  37, 
p.  137).  The  motive  of  this  picture  and  all  the 
attitudes  so  closely  resemble  a  group  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Parthenon  frieze  that  Robert  does  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  the  vase  must  have  been 
painted  in  Athens,  and  that  it  is  one  of  the  rare 
instances  of  a  vase-painting  copied  from  work  in 
stone.  But  Brunn,  in  an  article  in  the  same  peri- 
odical (1880,  p.  18)  finds  a  similar  motive  in 
other  works.;  for  instance,  in  the  coin  of  Larissa 
(see  p.  54  of  this  book)  and  in  a  Roman  relief 
(mentioned  on  p.  138).     He  concludes  that  this 


ON  THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  1 75 

was  a  typical  position  seen  in  every  riding-school, 
and  hence  that  there  is  no  proof  that  our  picture 
was  painted  in  Athens  or  copied  from  the  Parthe- 
non. Note  the  method  of  attachment  of  the  bit 
(p.  146),  and  the  leading-rein,  distinguished  from 
the  bridle-rein  (p.  163).  On  the  fetlocks,  see 
note  6,  p.  122. 

Page  44.  A  statuette  found  in  the  excavations 
at  Dodona,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  worship  of 
Zeus.  It  is  of  the  most  archaic  style  of  work 
found  there,  and  may  belong  to  the  seventh 
century  b.  c.  I  take  the  picture  from  "  Dodone 
et  ses  mines,"  Carapanos,  pi.  13,  i,  described  in 
vol.  i,  p.  183.  The  mane  of  the  horse  is  very  thick 
and  long  (see  p.  91)  ;  the  forelock  is  arranged 
in  a  sort  of  tuft,  as  in  Assyrian  reliefs  (see  for 
example  the  plate  facing  p.  145).  A  similar 
arrangement,  though  not  found,  I  believe,  in  works 
of  the  fifth  and  early  fourth  century,  appears  again 
in  later  art ;  see  the  frontispiece  of  this  book,  and 
the  cuts  on  pp.  13  and  51.  On  the  bridle,  see 
p.  146.  The  peculiar  shape  of  the  rein  (I  mean 
the  swallow-tailed  look  at  the  middle)  is  found  in 
some  Assyrian  reliefs ;  and  on  the  whole  this  stat- 
uette bears  many  resemblances  to  those  works. 

Page  45.  From  "Peintures  de  Vases  Antiques 
recueilles  par  Millin  et  Millingen  :  publics  et  com- 
mentees  par  S.  Reinach,"  pi.  i,  45.  A  vase  in  the 
Malmaison    collection   in    the    Louvre,    found    in 


176       XENOPHON    ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

Southern  Italy.  The  scene  represents  a  contest 
at  the  Panathenaic  festival.  This  contest  is  re- 
ferred to  in  an  Attic  inscription  of  the  first  part 
of  the  fourth  century  (C.  I.  A.,  ii,  965).  A  shield 
was  set  up,  and  at  it  riders  hurled  the  javelin  while 
passing  at  full  gallop.  In  our  picture  the  first 
rider  has  alre-ady  thrown  his  javelin,  which  has 
broken  against  the  shield  and  lies  on  the  ground ; 
the  rider  is  soothing  his  horse  by  the  means 
employed  also  on  the  Parthenon  frieze  (see  the 
end  of  note  46,  p.  143).  The  second  rider  is 
about  to  hurl  his  javeHn,  and  the  winged  figures 
above  with  crown  and  fillets  indicate  that  he  is  to 
be  the  winner.  This  game  originated  at  Argos, 
at  the  festival  of  Hera ;  and  the  shield  went  to  the 
winner  (Pindar,  Ol.  7,  8^  ;  Nem.  10,  22  ;  Hyginus, 
170,  273).     On  the  bits,  see  p.  146. 

Page  50.  A  bit  found  on  the  Acropolis  of 
Athens,  fully  described  in  note  53,  p.  145. 

Page  51.  Bronze  statuette  found  at  Hercula- 
neum  in  1761.  From  an  engraving  in  Duruy's 
"  Histoire  des  Grecs,"  iii,  p.  233,  where  it  is  taken 
from  a  photograph.  It  is  also  given,  in  outline,  in 
the  Museo  Borbonico,  iii,  tav.  27.  Now  in  the 
Naples  Museum.  Save  in  the  mane  and  tail,  this 
horse  corresponds  closely  to  the  description  of 
Simon  (p.  107  ff.). 

Page  54.  A  silver  coin  of  Larissa,  in  Thessaly; 
from  the  "  Monatsberichte  der  Koniglichen  Preus- 


ON  THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  1 7/ 

sischen  Akad.  der  Wiss.,"  1878,  taf.  2,  30.  Of 
the  motive,  as  Brunn  understands  it,  I  have  spoken 
already  (p.  1 74) .  On  the  costume  of  the  man,  see 
p.  163.    The  inscription  gives  the  name  of  the  place. 

Page  55.  From  an  engraving  in  "  Schliemann's 
Excavations,"  Schuchhardt,  translated  by  Sellers, 
p.  132.  A  fragment  of  a  vase  found  in  the  exca- 
vations at  Tiryns,  and  perhaps  of  the  ninth  or 
tenth  century  b.  c.  The  animals  and  the  men  all 
have  a  wooden  look ;  but  in  spite  of  the  stiff  legs, 
flat  belly,  huge  eyes,  and  flame-like  mane  of  the 
horse,  yet  the  shape  of  the  head  and  neck  of 
the  horse  show  that  even  in  this,  the  most  archaic 
of  the  pictures  in  this  book,  the  artist  had  before 
his  mind  the  type  of  animal  which  we  see  in  the 
best  art  (see  p.  90) .  The  lines  above  the  horse's 
back  are  not  intended  for  reins,  but  are  part  of  the 
geometrical  ornamentation.  The  men  carry  each 
a  shield  and  a  spear,  and  probably  wore  the  skin 
of  some  animal  of  which  the  tail  appears  dangling 
down  below.  The  colouring  of  this  vase  is  a 
lustrous  brown  on  a  light  yellow  ground. 

Page  60.     A  bit,  fully  described  on  p.  147. 

Page  61.  From  Schoene's  "  Griechische  Re- 
liefs," taf.  17.  Part  of  the  fragment  of  a  relief 
found  in  Attica,  now  in  the  Pinakothek,  Munich. 
The  lower  part,  here  omitted,  contains  an  olive 
crown,  showing  that  the  relief  was  set  up  by  a 
victor  in  a  ittttikos  dywi/  or  TrofXTry,  an  equestrian 
12 


1/8       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

contest  or  a  parade ;  perhaps  he  was  a  hipparch 
or  phylarch  (see  p.  75).  I  have  chosen  this  reUef 
because  it  seems  to  illustrate  Xenophon's  words 
on  the  proper  way  to  lead  a  troop  of  cavalry,  if 
you  wish  to  make  the  whole  line  ^'a  sight  well 
worth  seeing"  (p.  64). 

Page  64.  A  silver  coin  of  Ichnae,  in  Macedo- 
nia, 500-480  B.C.  From  the  '^Catalogue  of  the 
Greek  Coins  in  the  British  Museum,"  Macedonia, 
p.  76.  Note  the  hogged  mane  of  the  horse 
(p.  94)  and  the  rider's  greaves  (note  63,  p.  153). 
The  inscription  gives  the  name  of  the  town. 

Page  65.  An  Attic  black- figured  vase  of  the 
fifth  century;  from  Gerhard's  "Vases  Etrusques 
et  Campaniens  du  Mus.  Roy.  de  Berlin,"  pi.  xii. 
The  horsemen  wear  greaves  (note  63,  p.  153),  and 
each  carries  two  spears  (p.  162)  ;  the  helmet  may 
be  the  type  called  Boeotian  (note  61,  p.  152). 
The  inscriptions  at  the  left  and  at  the  right  show 
that  the  two  men  are  the  Attic  heroes,  Acamas 
and  Demophon,  sons  of  Theseus  and  Phaedra. 
Homer  does  not  mention  them  ;  but  according  to 
later  stories  current  among  the  Athenians,  they 
went  to  the  Trojan  war,  and  Vergil  puts  Acamas 
among  the  heroes  in  the  Trojan  horse.  They 
appear  several  times  in  vase-paintings ;  and  there 
were  bronze  equestrian  statues  of  them  on  the 
AcropoUs,  as  well  as  a  painting  of  them  by  Polyg- 
notus  at  Delphi.     The  names  of  their  horses  are 


ON  THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  1 79 

given  in  our  picture,  —  Phalius,  of  the  horse  at  the 
left,  and  Calhphora,  of  that  at  the  right.  The 
first,  which  was  also  the  name  of  the  charger  of 
Belisarius  (Procopius,  B.  G.  i,  18),  means  that  the 
animal  had  a  white  star  on  his  forehead ;  the 
second  means  "  handsome  legged."  The  perpen- 
dicular inscription  between  the  two  animals  is  a 
dedication  (see  p.  169)  of  the  vase  to  the  hand- 
some Onetorides. 

Page  69.  Bronze  statuette  of  Alexander  on 
Bucephalas  in  the  Naples  Museum,  found  at  Her- 
culaneum ;  from  the  outline  engraving  in  the 
''  Museo  Borbonico,"  iii,  43.  Ever  since  its  dis- 
covery in  1 761,  it  has  been  supposed  to  be  a 
reduced  copy  from  the  bronze  group  by  Lysippus, 
made  at  Alexander's  own  order,  to  represent  an 
incident  at  the  battle  on  the  Granicus  in  334  b.  c. 
In  this  battle  the  king's  helmet  was  broken  by  a 
blow  from  a  sword  (Plutarch,  Alex.  17)  ;  hence 
he  is  here  represented  bare-headed.  The  entire 
group,  consisting  of  many  figures,  was  carried  to 
Rome  by  Metellus  (Veil.  Pat.  i,  11,  3).  This 
horse  closely  resembles  the  other  (p.  51)  found  at 
the  same  time  and  place.  On  the  broad  brow,  see 
note  12,  p.  125  ;  on  the  cloth,  note  42,  p.  140; 
on  the  bit,  p.  149;  on  the  breastplate,  p.  67  ;  on 
the  flaps  at  Alexander's  shoulders  and  loins,  p.  66. 

Page  106.  From  an  engraving  in  "Antiquites 
de   Bosphore    Cimmerien,"   Reinach,  pi.   xx.      A 


l80       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

repousse  gold  ornament,  here  represented  a  little 
more  than  half  the  size  of  the  original,  found  in 
Koul-Oba  in  the  Crimea,  now  in  St.  Petersburg. 
The  scene  represents  a  Scythian  horseman  hunting 
a  hare.     On  the  bit,  see  p.  146. 

Page  107.  From  "Monuments  Grecs  publics 
par  I'association  pour  1' encouragement  des  etudes 
Grecques  en  France,"  Nos.  14-16,  pi.  5,  with  a 
long  description.  The  vase,  found  at  Vulci  in 
Etruria,  is  now  in  the  Louvre,  and  was  made  in 
Athens,  probably  about  450  b.  c.  Our  picture, 
which  is  painted  on  the  inside  of  the  cup,  repre- 
sents a  young  cavalryman  with  curled  hair, 
through  which  is  passed  a  red  fillet.  He  wears  a 
long  mantle,  richly  made  and  of  some  rather  stiff 
material,  instead  of  the  usual  short  cloak  (pp.  163, 
171);  his  petasus  (p.  163)  is  hanging  at  his  back  by 
a  cord  which  passes  round  his  neck ;  another  cord 
hanging  on  his  shoulder  served  to  keep  the  hat  in 
place  when  it  was  worn  on  the  head.  His  boots 
are  of  the  usual  cavalry  pattern  (p.  163),  and  he 
carries  two  javelins  (p.  162).  The  horse  is  decid- 
edly ugly ;  he  is  too  thin  and  bony,  and  his  head 
is  too  long  and  narrow  at  the  sides  to  satisfy  a 
Greek  connoisseur.  Yet  the  artist  has  not  done 
badly  with  the  details  of  the  anatomy,  the  muscles 
of  the  back  and  hind  quarters,  the  folds  where  the 
fore  legs  are  set  on,  and  with  the  tail.  The  bridle 
is  merely  indicated,  but  we  can  see  how  the  bit 


ON  THE  ILLUSTRATIONS.  l8l 

was  attached  (p.  146).  The  pose  of  horse  and 
man  being  one  of  complete  repose,  it  may  be 
thought  that  we  have  here  an  outpost,  doing  guard 
duty,  —  perhaps  in  winter,  as  this  might  account  for 
the  heavy  cloak.  A  good  list  of  vase-paintings  of 
men  on  horseback  will  be  found  in  the  article 
from  which  I  have  taken  the  above  description. 

Page  119.  From  Engelmann  and  Anderson's 
''  Pictorial  Atlas  to  Homer,"  plate  xiv,  74.  From 
a  Panathenaic  vase  (see  p.  171)  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury B.  c,  found  at  Camirus  in  Rhodes.  It  is 
better  illustrated  in  Salzmann's  ''  Necropole  de 
Camiros,"  pi.  57,  as  black-figured  on  an  orange 
ground.  The  scene  represents  acrobats  perform- 
ing, and  I  take  the  following  description  from  the 
first  book  named  above  :  "  Two  horses  are  in  full 
gallop  in  the  ring,  guided  by  a  single  rider,  who 
looks  round  at  an  acrobat,  who,  with  the  aid  of  a 
spring-board,  has  leaped  on  the  back  of  his  horse, 
and,  with  two  shields,  is  performing  a  martial 
dance,  jumping  from  one  to  the  other.  He  is 
represented  as  very  small  on  account  of  the  lack 
of  space.  Below,  between  the  horses'  legs,  is 
another  figure  (also  made  small  and  placed  in  this 
strange  position  for  want  of  space)  who  is  busily 
engaged  in  smoothing  the  sand  of  the  ring  with  a 
pick,  just  as  the  grooms  do  with  a  rake  in  the 
modern  circus.  Behind  the  horses  is  a  man  play- 
ing on  a  double  flute  in  front  of  the  spectators, 


1 82        XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

who  are  seated  on  tiers  of  benches  to  the  left. 
They  are  applauding  loudly,  and  one  of  them 
shouts,  '  Bravo,  fine  tumbling !  '  (KaAw?  tol 
kvI3l(tt€ltol)  .  On  the  right  a  youth  is  seen  climb- 
ing up  a  pole  (with  a  slanting  support  at  one 
side)  ;  but  whether  this  is  another  performance  or 
part  of  the  jockey's  display,  it  is  impossible  to 
determine." 

Although  we  have  no  evidence  of  riding  in  the 
Heroic  age,  as  I  have  remarked  above  (p.  74  and 
note  71,  p.  154),  yet  at  the  time  when  the 
Homeric  poems  were  composed,  riding  had 
reached  such  a  stage  of  progress  that  even  acro- 
batic performances  on  horseback  were  not  un- 
known. One  of  the  Homeric  similes  to  which  I 
referred  in  the  note  just  mentioned  runs  as  follows  : 
"  As  when  a  man  that  well  knows  how  to  ride,  har- 
nesses up  four  chosen  horses,  and,  springing  from 
the  ground,  dashes  to  the  great  city  along  the 
public  highway ;  and  crowds  of  men  and  women 
look  on  in  wonder ;  while  he  with  all  confidence, 
as  his  steeds  fly  on,  keeps  leaping  from  one  to 
another"  (Iliad,  xv,  679  ff.).  Scenes  like  the 
one  portrayed  in  our  picture  were  probably 
familiar  to  the  writer  of  those  verses.  This  per- 
formance seems  to  be  taking  place  in  a  regular 
circus.  What  has  been  called  a  "  spring-board  " 
in  the  description  above  quoted  seems  to  me  to  be 
almost  exactly  like  one  of  those  hollow  wooden 


ON  THE   ILLUSTRATIONS.  1 83 

pedestals  on  which  the  helpers  in  the  modern 
circus  stand  when  they  hold  out  the  paper  hoops 
through  which  the  rider  is  to  jump.  Of  an  event 
in  which  highly  trained  horses  bore  a  part  an 
amusing  story  is  told.  The  luxurious  people  of 
Sybaris  in  Southern  Italy  had  trained  their  horses 
to  dance  to  the  music  of  the  flute.  Their  invet- 
erate enemies,  the  people  of  Croton,  took  advan- 
tage of  this,  and  having  substituted  flutes  instead 
of  the  usual  trumpets  in  their  army,  suddenly 
struck  up  a  dancing  tune  just  as  a  battle  was 
beginning.  Thereupon  the  horses  of  the  Sybarites 
instantly  threw  ofl"  their  riders,  and  began  to  skip 
and  dance,  and  the  men  of  Croton  won  the  battle 
(Aelian,  N.  A.,  xvi,  23).  If  there  is  any  truth  in 
this  story,  it  shows  either  that  the  Greeks  of 
Magna  Graecia  used  cavalry  earlier  than  the 
people  of  Greece  proper  (for  Sybaris  was  de- 
stroyed by  Croton  in  510  b.  c,  and  we  have  seen 
that  the  Athenians  had  no  cavalry  before  the 
Persian  wars),  or  else  that  the  event  described 
took  place  after  the  return  of  the  Sybarites  to  the 
site  of  their  old  city,  about  450  b.  c. 

Page  157.  A  silver  coin  of  Potidaea,  of  about 
500  B.  c,  from  the  "  Catalogue  of  Coins  in  the 
British  Museum,"  Macedonia,  p.  99.  The  rider  is 
Poseidon  Hippios,  the  sea-god  here  appearing  as 
patron  of  horses,  which,  according  to  the  myth,  he 
created.     On  the  size  of  the  horse  see  p.  98. 


1 84       XENOPHON   ON   HORSEMANSHIP. 

Page  159.  ,  From  an  amphora  illustrated  and 
described  in  the  "  Achtes  Hallisches  Winck- 
elmannsprogramm,"  1883.  The  vase  is  of  the 
middle  of  the  third  century  b.  c,  was  found  at 
Ruvi  in  Apulia,  and  is  now  in  the  Naples  Museum. 
I  have  taken  from  it  only  the  figure  of  a  Greek 
warrior;  in  the  rest  of  the  picture  an  Eastern 
king  is  escaping  from  him  at  full  speed  in  a 
chariot.  It  is  thought  that  the  painting,  without 
referring  to  any  actual  historical  scene,  symbolizes 
the  triumph  of  Alexander,  as  representing  Greek 
civilization,  over  Darius,  as  the  representative  of 
the  East. 

Tailpiece.  A  silver  coin  of  King  Pausanias  of 
Macedon,  390-389  b.  c,  from  the  "  Catalogue 
of  Greek  Coins  in  the  British  Museum,"  Macedo- 
nia, p.  169.  I  have  spoken  above  (note  72,  p. 
155)  of  the  letter  Koppa  branded  upon  horses  of 
extraordinary  value.  On  the  hindquarter  of  this 
horse  is  branded  a  caduceus,  or  staff  of  Hermes. 
Other  brands  are  mentioned  in  Daremberg  et 
Saglio,  ii,  p.  800.  The  inscription  on  this  coin 
gives  the  king's  name. 


INDEX. 


Achilles,  horses  of,  99,  156. 
Acrobats,  iSi  ff. 
Action  of  the  horse,  55,  59,  117. 
Age  of  horses,  17,  23,  127. 
Alexander  the  Great,  loi  ff. ;  in 

art,  172,  179,  184. 
Amble,  the,  141. 
Apelles,  84,  106, 
Apsyrtus  on  the  horse,  86,  115. 
Arm,  piece  of  armour  called  the, 

66,  152. 
Armour  for  the  horse,  67,  153  ; 

for  the  rider,  65  ff.,  67  ff. 
Assurbanipal,  portrait  of,  166. 


Back,  double,  17,  112,  113,  114, 

115,  125. 
Back  sinew,  16,  109,  123. 
Bareback  riding,  41. 
Barley  surfeit,  28,  128. 
Barrel,  the,  88,  iii,  114,  116. 
Bars,  the,  124. 
Bit,  the,   36,    53,   138,    144  ff. ; 

branches  of  the,  148,  161, 171  ; 

flexible,   57,   58  ;   in  art,  160, 

163,  167,  170,175.  179;  rough, 

57,  144  ff. ;  smooth,  56, 144  ff. ; 

stiff,  57,  58,  149. 
Bits,  kinds  of,  56,  144  ff. 
Boots,  for  the  rider,  67,  154  ;   in 

art,  163,  165,  173,  180. 
Branches  of  the  bit,  148  ;  in  art, 

161,  171. 
Brands  on  horses,  72  ;  in  art,  184. 
Breaking,  20. 
Breastplate,  for  the  horse,  67  ; 

in  art.  179. 


Breeds  of  horses,  78. 

Bridle.     See  Bit. 

Bridling,  35. 

Brood  mares,  32,  117,  135. 

Bucephalas,  78,  loi  ff.,  125;  in 

art,  179. 
Bucephalus   type,   101,   125  ;   in 

art,  160,  165,  179. 


112. 

Career,  the,  43,  79. 
Causia^  in  art,  171. 
Cavalry,  Athenian,  20,  75  f . ;  in 

art,  162  ;  dress  of,  in  art,  103  ; 

examination  for,  76,  173. 
Cheek-piece,  146. 
Chest  of  the  horse,  16,  109,  iii, 

113,114,115. 
Chma  eye,  102. 
Chin-strap,  39,  136. 
Chirrup,  55,  144. 
Chlamys,  in  art,  163,  180. 
Cloth,  the,  41,  67,  140,  154;  in 

art,  172,  179. 
Cluck,  55,  144. 
Colour  of  the   horse,   108,  112, 

117. 
Columella  on  the  horse,  86,  112, 
Coronet,  the,  113,  116. 
Cropping,  134. 
Cuirass,  65,  150  ;  in  art,  165. 
Curb,  80,  144. 
Curry-comb,  133. 

Demi-pesade,  79,  126,  15b. 
Dexileus,  monument  of,  166. 
Discs  on  the  bit,  56,  145. 


86 


INDEX. 


Diseases  of  the  horse,  28. 
Dismounting,  44,  168. 
Docking,  134. 

SoKLfjLaaia,  76  ;  in  art,  163  f. 
Driving,  74. 

Ears  of  the  horse,  17,  109,  iii, 
112,  114, 115,  117,  125. 

Echini  on  tlie  bit,  56,  145, 

€Xi»'os,  145- 

Eleusinion,  13,  120. 

Examination  for  the  cavalry,  75  ; 
in  art,  163  ff. 

Eyes  of  the  horse,  17,  109,  iii, 
112,  115,  117 ;  china,  102. 

Feed,  128. 

Feet  of  the  horse,  14,  28,  116. 

Fetlocks,   15,  109,   122;    in  art, 

175- 
Flaps  on  the  cuirass,  66,  151  ; 

in  art,  167,  172,  179. 
Forearms,  16,  115,  124. 
Forelock,  32,  113;   in  art,  164, 

171,  175 
Frog,  the,  15,  29,  34,  115,  122. 
Frontlet,  67. 

Gaits  of  the  horse,  42,  59,  63, 
79.  97,  141 ;  in  art,  141,  163, 
164. 

Gallop,  the,  141. 

Geldings,  98. 

Girth,  140. 

•yi'cojitoi'e?,   120. 

Greaves,  66,  153  ;  in  art,  178. 
Grooming,  31,  34,  133. 

Halter,  30,  31,  39. 

Hands,  the,  42,  53,  56. 

Head  of  the  horse,  32,  109,  iii, 

112,  113,  115,  117,  124. 
Headpiece,  36,  136, 
Headstall,  36,  136. 

Helmet,   the,  66,   152;    in  art, 

i6s,  178. 
Hipparch,  75,  164,  178. 
Hogging,  93. 
Hoofs,    15,    28,    108,   III,    112, 

113,  114,    115,  116,   117. 


Horace  on  the  horse,  120. 

Horse,  armour  not  Greek,  153; 
an  expensive  animal,  76  ff. ; 
in  art.  Si  ff.,  158  ff. ;  high- 
mettled,  the,  52 ;  introduction 
in  Greece,  155  ;  nature  of  the, 
98  ;  primarily  used  for  war, 
100 ;  type  of,  how  determined, 
90  ;  writers  on  the,  86  ff.  See 
also  Breaking,  Colour,  Gaits, 
Head,  Hoofs,  Mane,  l^oints, 
Size,  etc. 

Horse-r.iising,  78. 

Horse-shoes,  121. 

Horses,  dancing,  183. 

Hunting,  48,  143. 

uTTojSao-is,  126. 
VTTO^L^a^Ofxai,  1 3 7,  1 74. 

Javklin  game,  176. 

Javelins,  48,  68 ;  in  art,  161, 164. 

Jaws  of  the  horse,  17,  109. 

Knees  of  the  horse,  16,    iii, 

113,  115- 

Koppa  horse,  155,  184, 

Leading-rein,  35,   136,    138; 

in  art,  163,  171,  173,  175. 
Leads,  the,  42,  140. 
Leaping,  46. 
Loin  of  the  horse,  17,  61,  no, 


Mane,  the,  32,  47,  Si,  91  ff., 
108,  III,  112,  113,  114,  115, 
1T7,  135,  156;  in  art,  164, 
169,  170,  175,  178. 

Mares.     See  Brood  mares. 

Markers,  23.  126. 

Marks  in  the  teeth,  127. 

Mash,  128. 

Micon,  85. 

Milk-teeth,  126. 

Mounting,  27,  3^,  39  f-.  52,  104, 
136,  137,139;  in  art,  168,  172, 

174- 
Mounting-blocks,  139. 
Mouth  of  the  horse,  29. 
Muzzle,  31,  131  ;  in  art,  173. 


INDEX. 


187 


Names  of  horses,  179. 

Nature  of  the  horse,  98. 

Neck  of  the  horse,  16,  109,  112, 

114,  115,  117. 
Neck-piece,  65,  151  ;  in  art,  167. 
Nemesian  on  the  horse,  86,  114. 
Nicking,  134. 

Nose-band,  39,  136,  139. 
Nostrils,  17,  109,  III,  112,  113, 

115,  117,  124. 

OK^d^eiv,  138,   172. 

Oppian  on  the  horse,  86,  113. 

Pace,  the,  141. 

Palladius  on  the  horse,  87,  116. 

Parthenon  horses,  79,  83,  89,  94, 

95>  97,  138;  H3»  149,  151,  160, 

165. 
Pasterns,  109,  114. 
Pauson,  84. 

7re6rj,   127. 

Pelagonius,  86,  115. 

TTepovY],   122. 

Petasus,  163,  171,  180. 

Phidias,  83. 

Phylarch,  75  ;  in  art,  164,  178. 

Pliny  on  the  horse,  89. 

Points  of  the  horse,  80  ff.,  87, 

107  ff. 
Poise,  the,  24. 
Poll,  the,  16,  17,  109. 
Pollux  on  the  horse,  91,  156. 
Prices  of  horses,  76,  102. 

Quarters,  the,  18. 

Racing,  75,  171. 

Rearing,  61,  63. 

Reins,  42,  161. 

Riding,  74  ff. ;  acrobatic,  181  ff.; 
age  for  learning,  170  ;  not  in 
Heroic  age,  74,  154,  182;  in 
Homer,  74,  182;  later  than 
driving,  74  ;  never  for  pleas- 
ure, 100. 

Riding-boots.     See  Boots. 

Riding-masters,  79,  168,  169. 

Riding-school,  168. 

Rings  on  the  bit,  57,  149. 


Sabre,  67. 

Saddle,  80,  140.     See  Cloth. 

Schlieben  on  the  horse,  80,  81, 
87,91. 

Scythian  bowmen,  164. 

Seat,  the,  40,  48. 

Selene,  horse  of,  165;  on  horse- 
back, 173. 

Shanks,  the,  15,  18,  109,  in, 
113,   115,   126. 

Shoes,  121. 

Shying,  37. 

Simon,  13,  15,  62,  79,  85,  86, 
107,   119,   176. 

Size  of  the  horse,  18,  95,  126, 
139,  i69,  170,  183. 

Snaffle,  twisted,  146. 

So/eci,  121. 

Spear,  68. 

Spurs,  46,  142. 

Stable,  27,  128. 

Stall,  the,  28,  128. 

Stallions,  98,  116. 

Stirrups,  80,  137. 

Stonehenge  on  the  horse,  89. 

Stones  in  stalls,  28,  128. 

Sword,  154. 


Tail  of  the  horse,  32,  no,  113, 

114,  115,  116,  117. 
Teeth  of  the  horse,   109,    no, 

126. 


Tpo^oi,  145. 
Trot,  the,  141. 


Varro  on  the  horse,  86,  in. 
Veins  in  the  horse,  in. 
Vergil  on  the  horse,  86,  in. 
Volte,  the,  24,  43,  79,  127. 


Walk,  the,  141. 

Washing,  32,  33. 
Withers,  the,  17,  no,  in. 
Women  riding,  173. 


Xenophon,  his  Hfe,  70  ff. 


f 


